The Tolkien Conspiracy
by Beguile
Summary: COMPLETE! Delaney's father was a huge LOTR fanatic, but after he died she couldn't bring herself to look at the books. That all changes when she meets Tobias, who claims to have found a way into Middle Earth.
1. The Wonders of Middle Earth

The Tolkien Conspiracy  
  
Note: All characters in this story regarding Middle Earth are the property of JRR Tolkien and not mine. There was no financial gain in the writing, thinking, or posting of this story, and it was for entertainment purposes only.  
  
Summary: A story about belief, and how even the biggest fairytale can become an even bigger reality for some.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 1: The Wonders of Middle Earth  
  
My father used to read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to myself and my sisters as we were going to bed at night. You could call him one of those Tolkien Purists. He adored the books. He knew everything about each of them. I think my sister and my first book was The Lord of the Rings picture book. I could read it all within a week, or so my father told me. He said I dragged that silly thing everywhere, like a lifeline of sorts, and by the time I was 8 I was already trying to read the books.  
  
I guess life is funny in that way. In a cruel sense of irony, as I like to think of it, after he died I never picked up those books again. Sure they sat there on my mantle, just as my father had kept them, and I'd often imagine opening one and being taken into it, where my father (who was really Lord Elrond) would take me back to Rivendell and I would get to jump on every bed within the House. Sure enough, these dreams never came true. My father was dead, and no matter how many times I peeled open that cover, I'd never get to jump on Elrond's beds.  
  
After a while the books became more decorations then stories. They sat there, staring at me with their ancient writing, as if telling me to open them in their own, subliminal way. I have ignored them so far. It has been 13 years since my father died, and I have no more time for stories of Hobbits and Elves, no matter how enjoyable they are.  
  
I became what my mother calls, "the spitting image of my father," and to her it seems that me being my father's daughter is not a terribly good thing. She complains I am obssessed, and after father died I always was. I reluctantly cause the phone conversations to end short in these cases where I cannot do anything else. My mother complains too much anyways. About my brother, about me, about my sisters....I'm not sure if anyone is safe from her wrath anymore.  
  
So, it was a little task to be sitting in my office the day when the news hit. I'm not good at dealing with the insane, and the gentleman who rushed in certainly was insane, but I tried my best, considering I'm only the Junior Reporter on duty and there are hundreds of others who would be glad to deal with what this man had to say. He was shouting at the top of his lungs and looking out my massive windows. I asked him what was wrong.  
  
"Wrong?!" He looked shocked, like the question I had asked him was not exactly what he was feeling. His long brown hair was shaking. "There is nothing wrong. All I can say is that I have seen the wonders of Middle Earth!" The man dropped like a rock into the chair in front of my desk and he sighed. He was a short gentleman, with a strange beard on his chin and small moustache over his lip. His hair was deep brown, like a chestnut colour and his eyes were the same. I nodded, trying to look interested.  
  
"I agree the movie was very good." The man again, looked shocked, shaking his head and laughing. I was now the confused one in the room. The man laughed harder and harder, and finally stopped, giving himself a chance to speak.  
  
"No you silly reporter." He said. "I have seen THE wonders of Middle Earth. And I'm not talking about the semi-accurate movies. I'm talking about THE Middle Earth." I could tell he was trying to make me feel inferior with all his over-emphasized "THE's", but I maintained composure anyways.  
  
"I think you've been reading the books too much. Good day." I went back to my article, glancing at the man who wasn't moving. He was again looking shocked. "Look sir, I have a very important story due within the hour and I have plenty of work to do. I can't deal with someone who claims to have walked through Middle Earth this morning so GOOD DAY."  
  
"M'am." He began again, rearranging his thoughts. "I apologize for the way I sound but I can assure you. I am of sound mind and am completely sober. Will you please just hear me out?" I stared at him for a moment, thinking his insanity to be passing off onto me, but finally I nodded and the man smiled. "Thank you. Now I begin at where I was taking my dog for a walk this morning through the park behind my house. Do you know Kensington Gardens?" I nodded, listening somewhat, using the selective hearing I inherited off my mother to pay somewhat attention to the gentleman. "I was just walking and suddenly something rings in my ears. I try to shake it off, but then I open my eyes and I'm surrounded in trees. Huge trees!" He moves his hands while he speaks. "Anyways, I kept walking, thinking it was just some trick of my eyes but in a second I had tripped and was looking up into the face of an elf." My head burst up, my eyes doing their little squinty thing that my father did when he was confused. The man laughed suddenly. "And then, I was back."  
  
"So you see a man with pointy ears and you expect me to what?" I asked, being extremely testy with the man. He laughed, like he had expected my response. "I'm sorry sir but this is a newspaper and a serious one at that. Good day."  
  
"That's the third time you've rushed me." He said. "I saw an ELF! Not a man with pointy ears as you so half wittingly put it." I glared at him. He just sat there. "I'm not leaving until you write it into a story."  
  
"What makes you think you can barge in MY office, tell me some insanely drunking story and make me publish it into an article?" I was now standing, almost yelling at him and I didn't know why. The man got to his feet as well. He looked very serious.  
  
"Look, Miss..." He looked for the name plate on my desk, not knowing I had thrown the damn thing out years ago. "Miss." He said, maintaining some of his composure. "I saw Middle Earth. I saw a ELF! People want to hear about this!" He kept babbling and I grabbed my phone, dialing the number for security. He kept talking.  
  
"Yes security, I need two, very large men up into the office of Delaney Marks." I slammed the phone back down and within a moment, two very large security guards came in and grabbed theman, who was still struggling.  
  
"I'll show you!" He screamed. "I'll show you it's true!" My door slammed and I was left alone.  
  
I slumped back into my seat and dropped my head into my hand. I played with the pen against the paper in front of my computer. The notes on the paper were of the recent fire in Pickadilly Station. I couldn't believe I was considering what this man was saying. Middle Earth? I thought my father was insane, but honestly, Middle Earth? Some people just see the movie too much I guess. I never saw it. I felt Peter Jackson's rendition of events would be far too elaborated that the movies would tell nothing of the original magic. I'm guessing it was right. My friend who read The Two Towers 9 times and was a devout Tolkien-ist came home and called me in a huff. I didn't make out much of what she said because it was riddled with curses, but I did get that there were elves at Helm's Deep and Faramir was 'evil'.  
  
But the man in my office looked to be sane, even though he was raving about seeing 'the wonders of Middle Earth.' I shook it off. Come on Lane, I thought with my pen moving on the paper beneath my hand. Middle Earth? You're kidding yourself. I looked up at the door and then back at the paper on my desk.  
  
The pen in my hand had been moving, but I hadn't been thinking. I saw what I had written. My black pen had spelled the words of my father's name.  
  
I am insane, I thought, tossing the paper into the basket on the opposite wall.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Well? Is it worth continuing? Please R & R! 


	2. Do You Believe Me Now?

Author's Notes: Hey! Thanks again for everyone's support!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 2: Do You Believe Me Now?  
  
I opened my front door that evening, just as the sun was setting and the sky was a variety of colours. Purples and pinks were strewn across the horizon carelessly like a 5 year old finger painting I used to do. Most often they were the sunsets by Rivendell or Lothlorien, as I was a huge Tolkien fanatic. It was rooted in my father completely. Jonathan Frederick, beloved husband of Margot Bethany, and father of Keegan George, Delaney Bettina, Willimina (Willy) Jessica, and Porscha Yvonne. I have no idea what kind of drugs my parents were on when they named us. Honestly. Delaney? What 40's sitcom did they decide to interpret when they were naming their children. I admit Porscha isn't so bad. But Willimina and Delaney? I guess I had to be happy my mother didn't let father name us. I could have grown up as Arwen or Eowyn. But my brother being called Legolas would have been funny. It would have given me a more legitimate reason to make fun of him.  
  
My house is three stories, but it's small. I have a loft, which I'm very happy for, and a circular bedroom, but other then that, I guess it's just home. There's a small foyer, leading up to a set of wooden stairs to the upper levels and, of course, the loft. The loft looks over the kitchen and the dining room, and then reaches into and over the living room where the fabled mantle is and the legendary box set lies. I dropped my bag to the ground carelessly and slide my shoes off next to it, hanging my coat on the wall hook. Glancing at my watch, I decided I no longer had the energy to cook. Flippantly I had a urge for pizza, and an urge for pizza from me is impossible to resist. I grabbed the phone off the wall.  
  
I live alone in the old family house. Yes, it's a little sad that I've lived her all my life, but my mother gave me good price on it and I'm only a reporter. How the hell can I afford something else? Besides, there's a lot of memory in this house. There's my father's library which is left of the 'Entrance Hall'. It's locked, a useless room. I don't think I've ever gone inside in my 5 years of living alone. I carry the key on my keyring, and I figure I will go inside eventually, but I'll probably be in a wheelchair and just glance at it before leaving. There's also the Measuring Frame, where my parents would take our heights every year. You can smell the memory in this house. Sometimes it smells like my mother's apple pie, other times, it smells like my father's musty book collections. Either way, it's either a good thing or a bad thing I still reside in the house where my father died.  
  
I walked into the living room and checked my messages, receiving four from Edith who wanted me to go with her to see Lord of the Rings again. I called her back and reminded her that I have a life. She gave me some comment about my bad luck with men, saying something about being frigid and repressed. I laughed at that, hanging up.  
  
I was waiting for pizza when I looked at them again. They were on the mantle, all of them. It was the entire Tolkien collection, ranging from The Lord of the Rings box set with The Hobbit to Farmer Giles of Ham (another of my father's personal favourites). It could hear and taste their memories. Listening to my father opening them carefully in the hallway. I think I could even hear him praying for them sometimes, speaking in soft tones. He would sit there, looking through his glasses, his knees pressed up to his chest and the book resting in her giant palms on his legs. He'd read slowly, allowing Willy and I to take in everything. He'd read some parts fast, just so we'd feel like we were there. I remember when he was reading Helm's Deep he actually took those giant rolls of wrapping paper and left the paper in a heap on the floor, while using the tubes as swords and allowing us to fight him off. Mom was pretty ticked about that.  
  
I walked over to the mantle and picked up the frail cover of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Turning to the first page of the old book I found the prophecy, the inscription.  
  
I jumped when the doorbell rang. Angrily I shoved the book back on the fireplace. Stupid me, I thought, and left them there, to be decorations once more.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The second appearance of the man was the very next day, and I was again in my office putting the finishing touches on my article. I heard the shouts outside and immediately recognized the smell of cologne. My door burst open and I was on me feet, instinctively. The man, who had shaved, was followed by two guards. He fought them off more viciously that day. I called out.  
  
"Stop." I said loudly. "Don't worry." The two guards backed off, walking out of the room but I saw them stay within earshot. The man closed the door. He had shaved, and his odd facial hair was now only bristles. Without it he was actually kind of cute. His hair was dark and curly, hanging in almost dreadlocks. That day he didn't drop into my chair. He handed me the bag.  
  
"There." He said. I opened the bag. "Proof." I had to admit he was persistant, and the item in the bag rolled into my hand. There was a golden tiara in the palm of my hand, curling and twisting. It looked exactly like a prop from within the movies, and obviously looked like it was from Middle Earth. Spiteful and cynicall Delaney decided to show up at that moment.  
  
"Wow." The bitch part of me said, looking at the tiara. "You buy Arwen's crown off E-Bay and I'm supposed to follow you into the woods." That was when I really came back, shoving the crown into the bag and handed it back to the gentleman in my office. "I've got better things to do then chase Liv Tyler. Go..."  
  
"Don't you dare good day me!" He said, shaking the bag. "I nearly got my head blown off by elven archers before I reappeared in this world! This is not some E-Bay prop this is real. Look at it!"  
  
"Look." I said, spinning my moniter around and showing him the page I loaded. It was E-Bay matches for Lord of the Rings. "You can get it online. I don't believe in movie props now will you please LEAVE ME ALONE?"  
  
"I can't."  
  
"Why not?" I demanded of him. He took a deep breath.  
  
"Because I know that you like the books too. Please." He was begging now, and him wearing Axe cologne was making it hard to resist the pleas of the innocent guy in my office. "Just come with me. I'm asking for ten minutes. Come to the park and come back here. Damn it I'm not making this up!" I looked at him strangely, cocking my head to the right. I remember when my father did this to me and my sisters when we didn't make any sense.  
  
"Who said I like the books?" I askes surprised. He shrugged.  
  
"Dunno. Just thought you did." I sighed, a little frightened of him. I finally spun my moniter back around. I groaned.  
  
"Look I'm not going to go to some park because you bring me some weird movie prop." I snapped at him. He dropped his arm to his side and groaned louder.  
  
"This isn't a movie prop!" He shouted at me, trying to get it through my head. "This is a real live genuine Elven crown that I stole when I was transported into Rivendell and was nearly killed by hundreds of elves. Do you like that?" I suddenly pounded on my desk.  
  
"Fine!" I shouted at him. "I'll come. 10 minutes and I'm gone. If I see something, I'll write the damn article but if I don't...you can never EVER bother me again. Okay?" He smiled and nodded. I took a deep breath. "Christ. You are so annoying!"  
  
"It got you to believe me didn't it?"  
  
"I never said I believed you." I spat back at him. "I said I'd go, but that doesn't mean I believe you."  
  
"Understood." He replied. "And if you don't find anything-which you will-I'll never bother you again. Sounds good to me." I grabbed my black trenchcoat off the hook on the wall. It was a chilly, overcats day, the ones that never rain but look like it from sun up to sun down. I buttoned up the front of it and grabbed by 6 foot scarf off the opposite hook.  
  
"Let's go." I said angrily. "I have an ariticle due."  
  
"Understood." He said. "By the way, I'm Tobias."  
  
"Delaney." I said coldly. "Come on." 


	3. CrazyInsane or InsaneCrazy?

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed on my last chapter! To Demented Fan...please don't subject me to cookie torture! My friends pulled it on me at my birthday party last year, only with a twinkie, and I went absolutely psycho! Thanks once more to purplefluffychainsaw (I LOVE YOUR NAME!) and Witch of Darkness, and obviously Demented Fan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 3: Crazy-Insane or Insane-Crazy?  
  
Tobias lead me along the streets. My office wasn't that far from Kensington Gardens, and for that I was thankful. I wasn't going to spend a long time with this nutcase. Middle Earth? Right in the middle of London? He was doing some heavy duty anti-deppressants, I thought melodramatically as we enterred the park. He was stepping ahead of me, the bag carrying 'Arwen's Tiara' jangling by his side as he stepped almost merrily down the dirt path. It cracked under my black heels, crunching with a certain moist sound you only got from recently rained on parts of soil. I heard thunder rolling off and away, somewhere on the other side of the city. Great, I thought again. Walking in the park, with a madman, while it's thundering and lightning outside? This day was off to a great start wasn't it Lane?  
  
"Right here." He said stopping. I too came to a stop, looking around. The path was still beneath my feet, the grass was still green on either side, and every so often there was a tree dotting the park. I placed my hands on my hips, waiting for something to happen. Tobias looked around nervously. Was this his way of seducing pretty girls? I hoped not. This was definitely not giving him any brownie points from me. He looked at the ground, then back up before closing his eyes. "Trust me it'll happen any second now."  
  
We waited for another moment, me tapping my foot impatiently on the ground and looking at my watch. Tobias was calm and composed, still somehow convinced that we'd be in the forests of Middle Earth at any moment. I finally lost my somewhat cool exterior.  
  
"Well, this has been lovely." I said. "But the magic carpet is obviously not coming and...oh look at the time." I turned on a heel and started to go. Tobias, I had figured, would say something. At least anything to keep me, but my ten minutes, and my ten nerves were up, and my feet were doing the thinking now. "Thank yo..."  
  
I had turned around to say goodbye to him. It was the least I could do, being as he had a one way ticket to the Sanitarium. But when I turned around, for some odd reason, Tobias was no longer standing there. Great, I thought. Now I have to file a missing person's report too. I turned around again, looking everywhere.  
  
"Tobias?" I asked to no one in particular. Where the hell could he have gone too? I wondered as I walked a little ways down the path. The park was almost empty, as far as I could tell. "Hello?" I called again, turning around, looking like a moron. "Okay fine." I said, giving up. "I'll write your bloody article now just get out of where you're hiding!" They were a crunch of my foot hitting the path and then, suddenly, I was knocked to the ground by a heavy force in a hurry.  
  
"I knew it!" He shouted, the big lug, getting off me and helping me back to my feet. "I knew you'd write the article!" He started jumping like a giddy school boy and dancing around the regardless of the family who walked by and eyed us oddly, thinking we were the people who recently escaped the asylum. "Did you see it? Wasn't it magnificent?"  
  
"See what?" I demanded, now feeling very lost. He stopped jumping and his smile faded. I think I just confused him at that moment. He looked directly at me. "I saw you disappear." I added. "That was it. Then I stood here like a moron before you tackled me to the ground."  
  
"But I heard you." He said. "Clear as day, through the woods." I shrugged, dropping my shoulders and looking around. "Are you sure you weren't there?"  
  
"Are you sure you were?" I asked him in return, pulling a pack of gum from my pocket, forgetting I had put it there. "Gum?" He took the piece I offered and we stood there, waiting for something else to happen. "There's only one thing I don't understand."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Everything." The bubble he was making popped and I sighed. He looked at the sky. He reminded me so much of a little kid. Insanely nice, jumpy, giddy, confused...It was cute almost, if it wasn't really obnoxious. In the past 2 days this guy had claimed to see-and apparently go to-Middle Earth, where he claims he stole a tiara from Arwen Evenstar.  
  
"So are you really going to write this into an article?" He asked, giving me very well done puppy dog eyes. I sighed again, blowing a bubble with my gum. I finally nodded and he hugged me, grabbing my shoulders in a tight hold and jumped up and down, running up and down the path. "I KNEW IT!"  
  
"YOU'RE INSANE!" I shouted. He jumped up and laughed. I dropped my head, realizing I too was smiling. He ran back to me.  
  
"This is great." He said, his lips were hugely smiling. "I can't believe this! I always knew this place existed! Always!" He shouted it to the place where he had disappeared. I sighed again, heavily this time. "No." He began. "You have no idea how much I wanted this to be true. I love the books. I honour Tolkien. And ORLANDO BLOOM IS SO NOT HOT!" I eyes him confused for that one, while he laughed and hugged me again, spinning off and jumping around in circles. "I knew it!"  
  
"Alright." I said loudly. "Let's get back inside before you hurt yourself." I grabbed his left arm, Tobias still laughing as I dragged him back to my office where I could start writing this article. I had no idea how I was going to write it, but I felt like I needed to do this. Somehow. It was odd how these things happen. One minute you think you're the fittest and most psychologically sound person in the world. Then your father reads you Lord of the Rings as you go to bed, allows you to pretend you're Arwen Evenstar, and then naturally, everything you wanted to be true (ie. SANITY!) all goes out the window and into the trash. Lovely, I thought, simply wonderful. I'm now the reporter for a nutcase who disappears and shows up once more in an instant. And not just any nutcase. A nutcase who reminds me completely of my father.  
  
"It's amazing." He began, and I knew Tobias was not going to stop. "It's beautiful! This is going to be the conquest of our era!" He cried out, the couple who passed us eyeing him oddly, but he must get that a lot since he barely reacted. "Think about it, space, drugs, the ocean, and now Middle Earth!"  
  
"Have I told you that you NEED HELP?!" I asked him. "There is no Middle Earth. This is simply my way of keeping my promises."  
  
"But there is." He said, stopping and pointing a finger at me. "You know it. I know you do. You have that look to you." He said. "You look like a woman who has believed in Middle Earth forever."  
  
"I never believed in Middle Earth." I said. "Ever. I never read the books, I never liked the story and I hate the movies! The only reason I ever watched them was for Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen...and possibly the Hobbits but that's beside the point!" Okay, Lane. I thought to myself, now you've gone too far. You've not only completely lied to him about all of the above (say for the Orlando Bloom part), you've just completely massacred your father's corpse and everything he taught you. I shook off the feeling. The man laughed, his head rolling back and he stopped suddenly.  
  
"You like Orlando Bloom?" He asked suddenly. "No you don't. Now you're really lying to me." I looked at him sincerely. He eyed me strangely. "Do you really?" I nodded, a slight smile on my face. Was this all part of some awkward plan I had? Or was this just a game for me? Leading this gentleman around like a mule with a carrot in front of his nose? Possibly it was a little bit of column A and a little of B. I did like him, I know that now, but I didn't think at the time that what I was saying would actually affect me in the future. Tobias grinned. "No. You couldn't. I can imagine why you hate the movies...quite frankly the Elves at Helm's Deep were enough to piss anyone off, but you? Not like the books? I think you're lying to me."  
  
"Look." I said, cutting to the chase and ending the conversation. "I have to go. I've got work to be done. But I'll type up this article. What should I call it?" I pulled my notepoad out of my pocket. Another thing my father taught me, always be prepared. I guess that's why my boss hired me so young. I'm only 23 you know. "Middle Earth in our Backyard?" He didn't laugh. He was really serious about this.  
  
"Think of a title later." He replied. I jotted it down but he placed a hand on my wrist. "And please don't call it that." I smiled at him. He looked into my eyes, matching wits with what I am told is a powerful stare. My mum used to say that about my father as well, that we both, no matter how different, had these powerful gazes that could bring the most powerful forces to their feet. "Call me. Here's my number." He grabbed my notepad and my pen, jotting down 7 digits and handing it back to me, his name scribbled beneath it. I grinned.  
  
"Then I'll call you later." I said, walking off. He waved.  
  
"See you." He said happily, walking in the opposite direction. I looked after him for a moment as he stopped short in the middle of the path and looked around, before continuing to walk. This time he pulled no disappearing act, just continued to walk into the park. I wanted to call out to him, but decided that I was already wasting my time enough with an article about a portal to Middle Earth. You know, my mind thought, people have ruined their careers with articles like this. I sighed deeply. Yeah. I bet JK Rowling never had to deal with this.  
  
After work I stopped by the bookstore across the street. I'm in a very populated and urbanized section of town, full of shops and stores to peek through. It just so happened that this bookstore had the copy of the book I was looking for. Due to the recent uproar caused by the movies, they had a whole shelf devoted to copies of my father's 'sacred' book. I brushed my brown hair out of my face, tossing it onto my back and looked through the covers, finally finding the Tolkien Biography and picking it up, flipping through the pages a little ways. It was a thick paper back, and I knew that my father probably had a copy of it somewhere, but I decided what the hell. I only live once don't I?  
  
I looked through the other books on the shelf. Naturally there was the trilogy. Each copy of the book was nothing like original books. The books I found were covered in movie images. Had they no idea of the stories behind the titles. The Fellowship, The Two Towers, The Return of the King...it was almost as if these people had seen the movie and never read the works. I felt ashamed to have seen the movie. Granted the first was actually pretty well done. The second I found almost chaotic, almost too far Hollywood that my initial reaction was to leave the Theatre.  
  
But the bookstore was quiet and soothing at that hour, the crowds coming and going. Almost four teenager girls had crowded around the poster of Legolas and stared at the man beneath the blond wig. I though they were insane. Not doing judgement on Orlando's job at the character, I found it very believable. Still, there's more then a blond wig and a nice face. Quite frankly I think Peter Jackson was trying to sell his movie with sex appeal. Liv Tyler? Orlando Bloom? Viggo Mortensen? The whole cast was a list of Hollywood's best looking. Next thing you know, they'll put Halle Berry as 'the real Galadriel' in nothing but a skirt and bra.  
  
I purchased 5 books that evening. The Biography obviously, followed by a book of Tolkien's artwork, and the newest copies of Lord of the Rings. All together I spent over 90 pounds on Tolkien and his work. I suddenly felt like my father. He'd go to the bookstore and come back with copies and copies of books and writing. He even applied to Oxford, just to walk in the libraries. He mentioned to my sisters and I that he eventually snuck in and looked around. At that point we were fascinated with him. He told us they actually had a class devoted to the study of Tolkien's writing. My father died before he could apply.  
  
I always thought I could go back there and do it for him. Just for something to do. Unfortunately, my budget was stretched far enough, and it wasn't like I could just go to Oxford. I had terrible marks in school, and Oxford takes an act of God to be accepted.  
  
Still, the thought still comes to mind. I spoke to my mother about it and she just laughed. I was forced to cut the conversation short, as I usually do with my mother, and just go on with my life. My guess is that mother never respected father. It had to be true. The chances of my mother ever believing my father was certainly far fetched. My mother is a skeptic, my father is a believer. They say opposites attracted, but they were like a fish and a bird. I can see my father as more of the bird. He liked to soar and let his imagination run wild. My mother was most definitely the fish. She like confinement and staying still, a aspect my father hated in people, especially his wife.  
  
He liked me though, and the reasons I'll never know why. His writing, my mother claimed always included a girl like me. Spirited, not afraid, holding a sword. This stunned me. That was the point she gave me the key to his library, mentioning for me to go in sometimes and look over everything. I often wonder if I should. Alas, the door, like my heart and my father's life, remains forever locked.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Still to come: The "Eagle and Child" Tavern and a look into Oxford's Library.  
  
REMEMBER TO R&R! 


	4. Deeper Hatred for Tolkien

Author's Note: Thank you again to my reviewers! I can't wait to get the next installments in, including Oxford's libraries and, of course, the Eagle and Child Tavern. Now with an appearance of Edith!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 4: Deeper Hatred for Tolkien  
  
I looked over the biography nearly four times in a sitting. This was including skimming over the pages and speed reading the parts that I didn't. I took notes on the paper in front of me, scribbling down messy writing of places Tolkien lived, where he was born, everything. I was halfway through my notepad when the phone rang. It was mother, who was wondering if everything was alright with me. I assured her my life hadn't changed. She didn't care whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I didn't care if she did. My mother and I never got along very well.  
  
I looked at the book again, and discovered several places I could look for around England. First, there was obviously Oxford. That depended on me getting time off work to take a day trip. Then there was the other places, like the Eagle and Child Tavern, a favourite place for Tolkien and his fellow writers to go. CS Lewis and he would talk about their own individual fantasy worlds there in the back room. I grabbed the phone and called in a few favours, getting the address before I could even think about saying thank you. Naturally Edith had it. She also owns the biography and (quote) "Would have let you borrow it if you weren't so damn impulsive" (end quote.) Impulsive? She was the one who saw the film 4 times within 2 weeks! And we're talking about being impulsive?  
  
Everywhere I wanted to go was in the Oxford area. Great, another step back in the life of Delaney. She can't even write an article properly. I felt like a moron. I'm writing an article on demand by a man who claims he's been to Middle Earth twice. It could be worse, I thought maliciously. I could be writing this damn thing for my father.  
  
I looked at Tobias's number again, then at my clock. 9:30. Should I call him? He did tell me to call him. Please. I heard bitch-Delaney in the back of my mind. You don't have to call him. Write a few lines and shove the stupid thing in the Classifieds. I shook my head and grabbed the biography book again. No way, I thought. I can be mean, but I'm not that mean. I flipped through the pages of the book, finding where I left off and opened it up to full, hearing the spine crack from it's new-ness. My father tried to tell me and my sisters never to do that. I think it was the young fascination we had with it. Anytime he bought us a new book, we'd do it just to make him cringe and go berserk. It was funny to see my dad angry rather then scary. He was that tame anger, the kind that last for a moment and then becomes humour.  
  
I reached unconsciously for the keys in my pocket, giving up and yanking my hand out. I set the book on the table and rubbed my eyes, still anrgy at the fact that I had access to that damn library and I wouldn't even go in. I made up my mind. Getting to my feet I stomped across the floor and reached for the library door handle. I pulled my keyring out of my pokcet and was about to finally open the only locked door in my house when the phone rang.  
  
"Yes?" I answered as a true reporter. The voice coughed on the other line.  
  
"Is Delaney Marks there please?" Tobias, I thought, trying not to laugh. I prepared to respond.  
  
"Speaking." I replied. He sighed in relief it seemed. I still couldn't wipe the smile off my face, and it was growing wider. He coughed a little.  
  
"Do you know how hard it is to find your number in the phone book?" He demanded. I pulled my key out of the lack and walked back to the living room. "There are 17 Marks and get this, you're the last one on the list!" I had to laugh. He didn't find it funny. "So what are you up to? Have you figured out where to start?"  
  
Okay, pause for a moment. He's the one who's wanting this article, not me. Still, there was a part of me that wanted to tell him I had everything under control and that I wouldn't be requiring his assitance. But then this big bolt of lightning struck my head and reminded me, naturally, that I did not have the criteria, in this case it being: A) Having read the books within the last 24 hours. B) Knowing any facts about Tolkien. And of course C) Having any interest in what I was writing. Still, I thought. What would it hurt to lie.  
  
"No." I said, and slapped myself mentally. NO!? You told him the truth. Now you've basically said, "Yes! I can't wait to see you again. Come by my office and we'll have tea and crumpets!" I went back to the real world, and my phone conversation. "I have a couple of places I want to check out...but I can do that on my own. I need you to write me up everything you saw while you were in Middle Earth." I said the words 'Middle Earth' with a heavy amount of skeptism in my voice. I think he noticed that. It would take a moron with the brain functions of a rock not to.  
  
"You really don't believe in this stuff do you?" He asked me again, probably to make sure I was listening. I shook my head, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't see me.  
  
"No. I don't." I admitted very flatly. "I believe in what I can see and smell and taste and touch...not what's written between the covers of a book." My eyes drifted back to the mantle, where I glared at what my father had considered the Bibles. "I can't see how this article is going to convince anyone that Middle Earth is real."  
  
"I don't want to convince them." He said, also very up front. "I want them to know that it's here. I want the world of other people who believed Tolkien to know that he was right."  
  
"Or that he was dropping acid. You know Stephen King did drugs throughout his whole career and you don't see anyone running up and down the streets screaming about Cujo or Carrie." I had hit a nerve, because Tobias had sighed with one of those child-like sighs where the kid doesn't get what he wants and wants to make the parents feel sorry for him. It was working. My stomach was doing that weird thing it does when someone tries to guilt me into doing something, like Edith when she wanted to dress up like Gandalf for Hallowe'en so she could be Aragorn and we could go together. I did it in the end.  
  
"I hold a lot of respect for Tolkien....even if YOU don't." Ouch, I thought. That actually hurt, and I'm not sure why. He sighed again. "What does it matter anyways. You still have to write the article. Where are you headed?" I looked at my notes again.  
  
"Oxford." I said, looking over the locations. "I want to check out the University and the Eagle and Child Tavern for information on Tolkien." He nodded, and "hmmed", making it easy for me to understand his actions. I listened for him to say something, and after a moment, I continued. "You're welcome to come if you want."  
  
"No, it's alright but I have to work tomorrow." He replied. "I'd love to."  
  
"Where do you work?" I asked him.  
  
"Coffee shop." He said, slightly ashamed. "But I'm working my way through University. I wanna become a writer." Weird, I thought, seeing this whole other side to the insane man who just jumped into my office the day before. I smiled.  
  
"Alright, well I have to give a call to my travel buddy. I'll talk to you later." He gave another one syllable sound and we hung up. I set my phone on the table. There's only one person I could think of who would enjoy a trip to Oxford to study Tolkien. One person who wasn't Tobias.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I knocked again on Edith's front door. It figured the woman would have painted it green. I also took care to notice the bright brass knob in the very center of it. I may not have read the books in a long time, but I did know that the beginning of the Hobbit virtually describes this door, right down to it's beautiful yet very odd green shade.  
  
Edith's house was beautiful, somewhere outside of London with a woods in the backyard and a beautiful garden. She loved her garden. She grew tealeaves and had become over the years that cliche woman who loves flowers and grows them all day long without anything better to do except read and watch The Lord of the Rings and, naturally, pester me. I knocked again, looking back down the gravel path to my car in the driveway, as if checking to make sure it was still there. I could hear Cougar jumping at the door and barking loudly. Cougar is her Great Dane, is twice the size of Edith and myself. He could literally kill me if he jumped on me, and nearly had on several occasions. He is absolutely huge. I could hear Edith pulling him away from the door and sending him into the living room. I finally heard the door unlock and the doorknob in the very center of the nearly circular door was finally opened.  
  
"Lane!" She says, smiling. I look down. Edith is an unnaturally short/vertically challenged person with extraordinarily boyant hair. We call it boyant because when she sits down in a pool and her hair is dry, it litterly puffs out and keeps her above water. She had blue eyes that have an uncanny habit of changing colours due to her mood or the light reflecting off them, depending which, and is still very short. I have to bend down sligthly to hug her, me being almost 6 inches taller then her, without heels. I scolded myself for wearing my four inch ones that day. I was nearly a foot over her height. "Sorry I'm not quite ready yet. I couldn't find a thing to wear." She ushered me in. I swear, Edith could pass for a Hobbit. Quite litterally if you looked at her in front of her house from a distance, you would honestly mistake her for a Hobbit. I was afraid to introduce her to Tobias. He might believe he's back in Middle Earth.  
  
"What just a moment and I'll get my coat. Then we can be off." She shut the giant round door and walked back inside, going into the kitchen. I looked around her foyer. Her house is all hardwood, and the walls are covered with drawings and paintings she'd done. Edith works as an Artist. She had an exhibition the following week in Tokyo. I looked over on the wall to my left and saw, naturally, her favourite painting. It's the one, I believe of Middle Earth. She painted the map and at certain main points, painted in the locations. She had the Shire finished and the Two Towers, as well as Lothlorien, Rivendell, and naturally Mirkwood. I glanced into the den, where she keeps her prized possessions. Over the desk there hangs the swords from the books. I could only name one, Sting, and the others were unnamed from my years as an unexperienced Tolkien reader. She also had on a pedestal in a silken cloth the replicas of the Shards of Narsil, another of her prized possessions. I notices the books on her mantle. This doesn't surprise me. Edith has another set of them upstairs in her room, and another set in the guest bedroom.  
  
She walked back into the foyer in her black jacket and looks at me spacing out for a moment, or at least I think she did. I was looking at the picture over her fireplace, the one of the Eye of Sauron she did for the exhibition last year. She shook me, I knew that. "You alright?" She asked. I nodded and took my car keys.  
  
"Let's go." I said, hating Edith's house suddenly. She and I walked out the door.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
R&R PLEASE AND THANKS! 


	5. Clues at the Bird and Baby

Author's Note: Once again, thank you to fluffypurple chainsaw (I LOVE YOUR NAME!). And here's Chapter 5, where the biggest truth is about to be discovered. A note that everything in this story is fictional, and the clues that are found do not pertain to Tolkien in any way and I am not an expert of Tolkien. Everything in this story is fictional and made up.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 5: Clues at the Bird and Baby  
  
We had stopped only once on our way to Oxford, and it was at a KFC for a large box of popcorn chicken, a large fry, and 2 large Cokes. I was shovelling through the popcorn chicken, watching the road carefully. Edith was flipping through my CD wallet, commenting on my odd taste in music. She discovered my collection of Anime CD's. It wasn't my fault they were so bloody catchy! She finally picked out the one with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody on it. I, who have hated the song since Edith had been known to burst out singing it and NOT shutting up after leaving the movie theater, even found myself helping her with the middle of the song and harmonizing for her. She laughed as the song faded, and I popped another piece of chicken into my mouth. I knew why I was so hungry for chicken. I got major salt cravings around my period for some reason. Great, I thought. This week was off to an agonizing start.  
  
"So who's this guy who wants you to write this article?" She had to ask that question. Out of her usual Top 20 Questions and Sayings to break ackward silences that was a tie with "I like Lord of the Rings." However I would have much preferred, "I like Lord of the Rings' over that right about now. Talking about Tobias wasn't funny. It was actually very Very VERY Annoying.  
  
"He's...charming." I said hesitantly. "In a weird way. I can honestly see you becoming someone like him." Edith was playing with the keychains on her keyrings. "Or already being someone like him." She looked up wtih her wide eyes and played with the keychain a little more, still smiling giddily. "I don't know. He claims to have found a way into Middle Earth through Kensington Park and is completely obssessed with making my life miserable."  
  
Edith nodded, still flicking the keychain. I glanced over at her confused from my spot on the right side and looked back to the road. "Why do you ask?"  
  
There was a long while of silence, and at first I thought Edith wasn't going to answer. When she finally did, I was really wishing she hadn't.  
  
"I like Lord of the Rings." She replied with a smile and a laugh. Even if she hadn't have said anything it would have saved me the moments of listening to her again. I sighed and leaned into the steering wheel, looking at the road signs. Apparently I was travelling 4 km over the speed limit. I shrugged and slowed down a little bit.  
  
"I am very aware of your obssession with Lord of the Rings." I replied a little sadistically. She grinned again. "You remind me any time you lose your train of thought and have nothing better to say."  
  
"Why don't you read them anymore?" Alright, that was the number one question I didn't want Edith to ask me. It was also on her Top 20 Questions and Sayings to Break and Ackward Silence, it being number three, just behind her natural, 'I like Lord of the Rings,' and, 'Orlando Bloom/Johnny Depp is sexy/hot.' I looked at the road, without another sound or response, not giving her the pleasure of hearing me torture myself subliminally over my past difficulties with the books I had once regarded as my Treasures. I stared ahead of me, knowing Edith was wanting a response.  
  
"I don't read them because I don't like them you know that." I said, still not looking at her. She grinned somewhat, slightly amused with what I had just said. I looked over at her. "What?" I asked. She laughed slightly.  
  
"You go from them being your prized possession to them being decorative piece on your mantle? That's some change Lane." I was getting angry, and I knew it was from the salt of the chicken mixed with the forebodense of my monthly friend, but I shook off the urge to snap at Edith for her comment on my disability to enjoy Middle Earth as I once had.  
  
"Well, Edith, people change over the years." I looked at the road sign saying Oxford was a littl over a half hour away. I grinned. Good, I thought. Hopefully Edith will be too amazed looking at the Eagle and Child Tavern that she'll forget that I hate the man who once visited there and will stop bothering me about the problems I have with my father. Wait, not father, my father's books.  
  
"I just don't see how someone who grew up with the books, who has the ORIGINAL copies (Note: Edith has always been jealous of my original copies of the books), and a father who loved them more then life itself now hates them as much as she hates the memory of her father." I looked shocked and gaped at her, looking hurt and wounded at what she had said.  
  
"Hate my father? Are you serious?" She nodded, with that look on her face that surely meant, 'Yeah, and you know I'm right.' I looked back at the road, still gaping. I stopped to swallow the saliva that was developing in my mouth but look back at her for a moment. "You can't be. I loved my father."  
  
"I never said you didn't." Edith said frankly and flatly. "All I said was that you hate his memory. Not him as a person." I was still in shock. Edith had basically told me...to my face...that I was scorning my father's memory. Sure, there was the tiny lie I told to Tobias in the park and the other lie I told to him on the phone, but other then that, they were just lies. It wasn't like anyone cared if I loved the books or not. Past was past, and I'm planning to bury it...one way or another.  
  
"I can't believe you just said that." I said, trying not to laugh, still in shock at what Edith had just said. Edith shrugged and I looked at her again. "I cannot believe you basically just told me that I was massacring my father's corpse." Edith shrugged again and still said nothing. I think at that moment I was very close to going on one of those self ritious rants. You know the ones in movies where the main character breaks down into tears (usually the female) and begins crying about everything hard in their life and how nothign ever works for them? But then I remembered that I had chose to live in the house he died in, and I of course, made the choice to keep the books on my mantle, and I of course made the choice to keep his library locked and never cry at his funeral and...  
  
"Whoa, Delanely calm down." I was breathing heavily and I realized suddenly I had just done it. I'd done the break down. Edith placed her hand on my shoulder and I wiped the tears from my face, still a little afraid. I looked back at the road. Edith moved her hand back. "Are you okay?" I nodded, still a little shocked. Edith was looking scared.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." I sighed again, and Edith didn't say anything. I reached for the radio and put Bohemian Rhapsody on again, just to please Edith. She didn't say anything, and for a while we just sat there in silence.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
My first impression of Tolkien was that he was a sexist old git who did nothing with his time except write stories. Alright this was my second impression of Tolkien. My first was that he was the biggest genius of my time, and should be regarded with respect and all that other stuff. Edith always thought like that. After my father died Tolkien transformed from being a genius into a grumpy, sexist, old man with no sense of humour and a big vocabulary.  
  
Walking into the Tavern, I suddenly saw another side to this once fabled Genius. Now he was not just a grumpy, sexist, old man with no sense of humour and a big vocabulary in my mind. He was now a grumpy, sexist, and intoxicated old man with no sense of humour and a big vocabulary. All in all, a bad mix. Edith was in awe of the hardwood area of the whole building. I felt a little silly. Edith, being this short and stout woman with fluffy hair and a blue jacket and myself in my long black tenchcoat and striped glove. If anything, we were an odd pair and were probably considered lesbians. I think Eden got that from the atmosphere too, since she and I walked apart from one another for a moment.  
  
The tavern was apparantly 'bar served' and was obscure, according to the Oxford Pub Guide I found on the Internet. I looked around, the few tables and stools filled with elderly men. Out of everyone there was only one woman, and she was a fright. An elderly woman, whose hair was hanging out of a loose bun in gray strands that covered every inch of the top of her head. She had a pipe in her mouth, and her right hand was clasped on the end of it, her other arm folded across her waist.  
  
The bar tender, another fright was a young guy with a weird french mustache. He was quiet with myself and Edith. I looked at him and smiled slightly. "Hi." I began. "I'm Delaney Marks from The London Times. I was wondering if I could get a look at the room where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to talk?" He nodded and nudged his head back, still not saying a word. I looked oddly at him and he suddenly got all shirty with me.  
  
"Well what are you waiting for woman? Walk." I gaped at him again and then my tongue, which I have been told is my greatest weapon besides my pen, moved without me thinking.  
  
"I will. Wouldn't want to be in the presence of a pompous bastard like you any longer." I walked off, Edith in toe and my coat flaring off the ground. I could hear the bar tender breathing heavily, like he was shocked with what I said to him. I looked behind me and stuck out my tongue, going into the back rooms where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, two of the supposed most acclaimed authors of the 20th century, had once sat and spoke of their two worlds. CS Lewis was more of a Catholic, or so I read somewhere. Edith tapped me on the shoulder as we walked inside.  
  
"I can't believe I'm actually here." She said shocked, moving her hands over the walls of woods. "I can't believe I'm here, in the Tavern where HE used to sit." She said he like she was talking about Christ himself. She walked and sat in one of the chairs, her hand still on the wall and still feeling the grains of wood. "Can you believe it? He actually sat here...in this very room."  
  
"Rivetting." I said emotionlessly, looking around. My father would have loved this. He would have adored this. I still never believed the fact that he never went to the Eagle and Child Tavern. Ever, in his life. I think as a child I never believed him, like I did right now. I looked around again, realizing I wasn't going to find anything here. Believing it to be a wasted trip I turned and look at Edith. "Come on, let's go before the University closes. I still have to see the libraries." Edith looked sad to leaved, and I walked out, suddenly tripping on a cracking floorboard. A second later and my foot fell through the boards and my knees and hands connected with the ground.  
  
I waited for a moment, half expecting the bartender to enter. I smiled when he did not. Edith helped me to my feet. "Are you alright?" She asked me. I nodded, pulling my heel from the floor and looking at the hole more shooe had made. Great, I thought.  
  
"Come on, leave quickly and he might not noti..." My voice faded mid sentence as I look back into the floor and found a box hidden under the boards. Edith looked at it oddly too. I pulled it from under the boards and knelt down, Edith following suit. I blew off the dust. It was an old cigar box, faded with time and wearing with age. I moved my fingers along the lid, still looking behind me.  
  
"Open it Lane." Edith willed me and my fingers pulled the top open, sending dust into the air. After a moment of coughing, we looked and saw a pile of papers, note papers. full of writing and notes about things. I pulled them from the box and found several notes and letters, signed by Tolkien himself. Edith tried to grab them from me but I shoved them back into the box and concealed the box within my jacket.  
  
"Later." I said, and pried the floorboard back up, making it look half presentable. We left without another word, say for a few dirty glances at the bartender.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Prepare for the Oxford Libraries and most definitely, the letter that gives the clue.  
  
PLEASE R&R! 


	6. Ode to Maps and Elves

Sorry this took me so long to get up. Well, here it is. The Oxford Libraries and the cute Professor and the insnae Tolkien fanatics Edith flirts with.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 6: Ode to Maps and Elves  
  
Edith was driving this time, and as we drew nearer the University, my fingers were moving over the papers in the cigar box. Each page was frail, and the wrong movement could cause the paper to simply break apart. Pages were covered in character lists and descriptions of places.  
  
In the bottom I found a folded piece of paper. It was thicker, and was newer, showing that it hadn't been buried as long as the others. I carefully exctracted it from the bottom, unfolding it and holding it an arm's width apart. It was a massive and giant map of Middle Earth itself. One of the original drawings. You could see where Tolkien had erased and redrawn scales and forests. He'd even labelled some wrong and had to correct them. It was weird to see the ALMIGHTY TOLKIEN making a mistake. I had to run this by Tobias. For puposes unknown. I, for some reason or another, had to shove his face in the fact that Tolkien was not: A) A God. B) A Great Man. Or C) All of the Above.  
  
"What is it?" Edith asked, glancing over from the driver's seat. I shurgged, following the map with the same interest as my father had. He'd sit for hours examining the damn thing from his books and the posters he had on the walls. And then he'd leave for a moment and come back, a cup of coffee in his hands to look at it for another hour or so.  
  
But this map was different somehow. I noticed this and sensed this almost immediately when I saw the very faint lines running across it to and fro. Edith noticed it to. I followed them dumbly with my finger.  
  
"Well a map." I said. "But what are these lines on it?"  
  
"Like a puzzle isn't it." She replied. I nodded. Definitely like a puzzle.  
  
For fear I would ruin the map, I folded it back and looked through the papers. I looked them over, realizing they were only lists of characters that he had written descriptions about. It was odd to see them. Somehow I always though Tolkien just sat down and started writing one day, kind of like what I do. But no, here was the sheets of translations for several words in Elvish and character plots. I held them up for Edith to look over. I wondered why a moment later she shook her head.  
  
"These must be the original ones. There are some differences on these." She said, emphasizing quickly a small portion of Arwen's characteristics. "Maybe he ended up changing them later." I shrugged.  
  
"Maybe." I said, but some of this didn't make sense to me. Why wasn't all this stuff in his office or personal place rather then under the floorboards of that God Awful Tavern? Why was this hidden and the other pages, the pages Historians and such look at, are all somewhere boxed up. I set the pages back down into the box and closed it, setting it aside.  
  
"What?" Edith asked, and took me out of my little thought trance. "I know when you're thinking now would you tell me what bothers you about this so maybe my tiny thought processes can possibly give you a hand?" I gave a small laugh to her final comment and leaned back against my chair, looking at the ceiling of the car.  
  
"I just don't get why all these were kept hidden and the other papers are safe at the University." I commented. Edith looked over at me, and I thought she was asking me to elaborate, like she usually did. I continued anyway. "Think about it. There are thousands of these papers safe in his office...but these select few, big enough to fit comfortably in a cigar box, were chosen to be hidden away."  
  
"Maybe these were his starting notes." She retorted. I looked at her oddly.  
  
"Wouldn't they be kept with the others?"  
  
"Maybe it's a Time Capsule." She said, looking slightly proud of herself as she gladly brought up an idea I did not. "Maybe it's his way of hiding his work from others." I looked at her strangely again, and she flipped on the radio and continued to sing Bohemian Rhapsody. I picked up the box again and shrugged, setting it aside once more.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I always wondered why I allowed Edith to show me around places. She has the directional skills of two hobbits fighting over Lembas and mushrooms. Within the first five minutes at Oxford we narrowly escaped being flirted with by two scholars and being told off by crabby old teachers. And that's when I dragged Edith over to the Orientation center and got a map, fighting the urge to quite litterally, whack her over the head with it.  
  
I followed the directions on the map and easily found where we were going. The Oxford libraries weren't that far from where Edith had gotten us, so the urge to whack her several times maliciously hard with the map were finally gone and I was now thinking about hugging her for somewhat leading us in the right direction.  
  
It was huge inside the library, and that was saying a lot. I felt very bad for Edith, who was reminded of how tiny she really was everyday. I could see her give almost a grimace of pain as we walked inside. I knew how bad she felt. I'm not unnaturally tall but I still felt quite short in the rows and rows of books.  
  
"So what are we looking for?" Edith whispered to me. I shrugged. Books? Papers? Something or anything on Tolkien? Something explaining why he would draw ever so faint lines across the maps of his books? I shrugged again, to show how absolutely clueless I was about the whole situation. Edith grinned and humphed, mumbling something under her breath about, "Having read the books," and her being "the almighty and powerful and wise Tolkien fanatic." This made me laugh under my breath, making Edith look at me strangely. I shrugged again.  
  
"Well it would help if you knew something." She replied. I grinned.  
  
"Alright, you Almighty Tolkien Fanatic, please tell me where I might find a Tolkien expert." Edith pointed to herself. "I mean one who can help us get some information on the git firsthand. I'm talking about a Professor." Edith looked hurt, but it was her turn to shrug, so she did and I decided, setting aside my less the popular people skills, that I would converse with the librarian for a moment.  
  
The librarian was one of those cliche and snooty old ladies with extraordinarily sharp features. Her nose, for example with thin and pointy, and her lips were thinned out under her very distinct but at the same time very Very VERY sharp features. She looked like she had one too many bad face lifts and I was very afraid to speak to her. I swallowed my guilt that was triggered towards this woman for looking extremely odd and I approached the front desk. Her beady eyes were now upon me and I cleared my throat.  
  
"Excuse me." I asked quietly. She was still looking at me, as if she was seeing right through me. "I'm a reporter for the London Times and I'm doing a piece on Tolkien. I was wondering if there was anyone I could speak to..."  
  
"Everybody's doing a 'piece' on him these days." She retorted, just as snottily and as egotistically as I thought she would. "But if you're going to write what everyone else has written, I suppose there's no stopping you..." She looked me over with her lobster-like stare, "Young people. I suppose you would also like to know if that Bloom fellow ever comes here for tea."  
  
"Well, you know me and all the other Young people." I replied with the same amount of sarcasm and just enough grotesque ego that she would get the message. "All we want to do is slander and publisize the man as being clinically insane. And does this Bloomn fellow come for tea? I've been dying to meet him since the movie?" She got up mumbling something about Young People, but I was too pleased with myself to care whether or not she hated me. She grabbed the phone off the wall inside her tiny little office and I heard her mention for a professor. I grinned slightly, amused with my handling the situation.  
  
She walked back. "Professor Lurdin will deal with you. Room 137. I can't imagine what he sees in people wanting to study Tolkien. Especially YOUNG people." I grinned at her. I tapped the desk once more.  
  
"Thanks for your help." I walked away listening to her mumbling again. I grinned and walked over to Edith, who was making small talk with two very handsome boys with Lord of the Rings on the top of their book pile. I yanked her away while she was screaming for their phone numbers.  
  
I looked at the map again and found we were on the right track. Straight down from the libraries you could easily get to the '100' rooms as the map had called them. I was half dragging Edith, who was now mumbling about me not also being impulsive, frigid and repressed, but also that I probably not had a date in ten years and also a moron. I yank her wrist a little harder after that.  
  
Room 137 was the usual lecture room for a University. I found it had terribly harsh lighting, and deducted that it was probably from the fact of the boredom triggered by this class's teaching plan. I looked around for the Professor we were supposed to meet, releasing Edith and looked at the chalkboard. I found we were in the right place to find Tolkien. All over the board were heavy duty notes on how to translate this Elvish language. I began to connect A to B to C and realized the woman in the library, no matter how pointy she had been, had steered us in the right direction.  
  
I think Edith had a heart attack when she saw the board and took on the same realization I did. For Edith though, having the actual chance to learn the Elvish language was a dream come true. She immediately started reading the notes, while I looked around for a teacher.  
  
"May I help you two?" There was a voice in the doorway, and I turned around. Edith was too consumed in her reading. The man in the doorway I was assuming was Lurdin. He couldn't have been over 35. He had nice, pleasant features, a full head of hair, and these soft blue eyes I was immediately infatuated with. He stepped inside, taking on who I must be and who Edith might be, but I think he was considering kicking Edith out of his class because she was now sitting on his desk looking over the notes on the board.  
  
"Yes, we're looking for a Professor Lurdin." I asked him. He walked inside and nodded, and I took this as a sign that he was in fact Lurdin and not just listening to the sound coming from my moving lips. "I'm a Reporter for the London Times and this is my trained Howler Monkey." I pointed at Edith, who, consumed in her reading did not hear the Howler Monkey remark. "I'm doing a article on Tolkien and I wanted an expert."  
  
"Well you'll want Lurdin Senior for that." The second man who enterred the classroom was in fact elderly. He was walking with a cane, moving slowly and like he would break apart at any moment. "Hello." He said finally, extending his hand, which I shook gently. "I'm Professor Lurdin. This is my son." The man at the door smiled and walked inside. "You said you wanted to know about Tolkien?"  
  
"Well yes actually." I replied, leaning back against the desk. "I wanted to take a different approach though. Everyone focuses on the books rather then things like where the ideas for the books came from and who was Tolkien during his life."  
  
"Quedos for originality." The son replied. I was referring to him as Lurdin Junior. "People come by here all the time asking for things like, 'How long did it take to finish the books'...."  
  
"12 years." Edith piped in behind us, her eyes still fixed on the board.  
  
Both Professors gave tiny laughs and Lurdin Junior continued. "How did he come up with the Elvish Language?"  
  
"He was a Master Linguist." She replied. I glanced back at her again, finding that she was still staring, her eyes as wide as saucers at the blackboard.  
  
"And how to translate the elvish word Mela and decipher it as Quenya or Tel'Quessir." Edith looked bahind her at the professor with an evil look on her face.  
  
"Damn you. I was on a roll." She looked back at the board as he grinned from ear to easr, happy somehow that he stumped Edith.  
  
"Well if there's anything you'd like to know..." Lurdin Junior said. I had to say he was one of the best looking, best dressed, and best smelling professors I had ever seen. He was wearing some kind of really nice cologne, along with a black dress shirt, black pants, and black tie. His coat must have been somewhere in the building, but honestly I could see he was toned nicely under the shirt. Hey! I'm not all frigid and repressed.  
  
"I'd actually like to be able to see some orginal drawings or maps of Middle Earth." I replied. "If that's possibly." Lurdin Senior walked silently away, leaving his son to deal with the reporter and her Howler Monkey. He looked at Edith and showed me out of the room. I was worried to leave her there, but something told me she would be absolutely fine by herself.  
  
"All of his books, papers, and other things we put into a large box and stored them in this office." He said. "Take a look." He turned on the light of a nearby office allowed me inside, where he looked prepared to leave. "I have a class right now but if you need anything just ask my father in the next room." I smiled at him and he left, as I was left alone with the box.  
  
My hand hesitated over the covers. My father would have loved to see this. I could envision him doing what I was doing, like a child in a candy store, he would probably take to Oxford like a child took to a park. This box would have been a heaven for him. I dismissed the thoughts of my father dancing around this office singing the Sound of Music and pulled open the flaps. Whoever was in charge of taking care of Tolkien's things did a damn fine job. Everything was in perfect oder. The maps were rolled to one side, and I extracted them crefully, opening each. None of them had the lines across it. I decided the one myself and Edith had in the car was the only one. I set the maps aside.  
  
It was an hour later easily when I finally came out of the office. With a quick thank you to both Lurdin's, I snatched Edith out of the classroom again, finding her flirting with those two fanatics once more. I think she had scored their phone numbers, because she was not as hesitant to go this time. I waved goodbye and we left in a hurry. This was triggered slightly by the fact that Lurdin Junior was extraordinarily cute, and I did not want to be caught with the papers from Tolkien's box that had found their way into my coat.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 


	7. The Map He Drew

Sorry about my sparatic uploading. I haven't been near a computer in a little bit and can't really save anything on the computer I'm on without deleting it so I have to type this chapter and then upload it. Once again thank you for the reviews! I can't believe how many I've gotten, and 12 reviews for 6 chapters is really good for me, so thank you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 7:  The Map He Drew

Okay, okay, so maliciously stealing orginal papers from Tolkien's box of Wonders from Oxford University was not the best idea in the whole world and in fact could constitute stealing but please! I'm a reporter. If reporters were a race we'd be the most hated tyhings on the planet, say for lawyers who would probably rank of the pyramid of hatred at the same level as the Politicians and Peter Jackson if he continues to piss of the Tolkien fanatics. Well, it;s kind of a chain actually. See with the Peter Jackson movies, people don't see the need in reading the books and then they consider the movies as a primary source of information. Then naturally they think Legolas really was as hot as he was in the movies and Arwen was really a foxy slut and Frodo just kept rolling his eyes up in head. To quote Edith and every other 'Tolkien Purist' I've ever met or spoken to, "There's a whole other world when you open the covers the books. It's vivid and well written, and it's like stepping out of your skin for brief moments in time."

I never get caught up in books. I think the last book I read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not a terrible novel mind you. I enjoyed Snape and didn't think he was a truely terrible character for the novel for the first time since I started reading them. I laughed at the thought. Who knows? Maybe the next weirdo to walk in my office will claim they found Hogwarts.

I was standing in front of my kitchen table, a cup of black coffee in my hand and looking at the giant map I had found. The lines had bothered me so I had taken a few sheets of tracing paper and traced over the lines, looking at what I had drawn. They seemed, just as Edith had said, like puzzle pieces, as if Tolkien had been manufacturing himself some homemade merchandise. Somehow this didn't strike me as odd. Any man who can spend twelve years of their life writing about people as tall as my knee trying to toss a ring into a volcano certainly needed something else to do with their time. Like that American broad, Martha Stewart. Something could be said about both she and Tolkien. Both needed and still need a better hobby. 

I know what Edith would say to that. She won't even ask me for proof. Instead she'll ramble on about what a 'genious' he was and how absolutely brilliant he wrote. I think I want to miss that one. Just considering once Edith gets started she just never stops. She's the type of person who pauses and then just picks up where she left off. 

I took the tracing paper off the map and looked at it carefully, and then grabbed my scissors and cut the pieces out. I set the pieces on the table and looked at the carefully, sliding into a seat. I set my coffee next to me, the aroma twirling into the sky with the steam that still rose from it's blackened surface. I love the smell of coffee. I love the taste of it. I slid the pieces around, trying to find the edges like a puzzle. My mother was in my head again. She had once said that when I was two years old I would sit at the table and finish, quite litterally 200 piece puzzles. I wasn't sure if it was ever true.

My fingers were moving faster then my mind. Somewhere in my mind I knew what I was doing, and for some weird reason I was doing it. I put the piece of Rivendell into places. Each piece I had cut sloppily, but they were fitting together perfectly as if I had actually profeshionally cut them. I was working faster then I ever had before, as if under a spell and I was thinking and multi tasking. My head was moving faster. My father was reading to me and my sister. He was in the hallway. I was on my side, watching his shadow. His shadow was always there, looking over me, even if it was faint. He was talking about Smog. He was reading about the missing scale. He was had spoken about it so many times during the day. My sister and I were excited. Porscha and I had both made cookies in celebration. They were shaped like arrows.

My mind snapped back into reality as my fingers stopped. There was a sudden moment of recognition at what I'd done. The shape in the pieces....it was familiar. I looked over the edges, and then....

My mind came back. I knew what I was looking at. I ran into my living room and grabbed the handles on the doors under the coffee table. I pulled out my mass of papers that I had simply thrown in there one day when I was too lazy to clean up and didn't want to see them again. I was digging through them. Come on, I thought, I know I have one...I know I do...I know. I grabbed it. The road map of England and yanked it to the kitchen and ran back, sliding in my socks and falling flat on my face on the hardwood kitchen floor. 

Ow...I thought. That one hurt. I think I passed out for a minute because I finally flickered my eyes open and my head felt like it was going to burst. I clambored to my feet, rubbing my nose and readjusted my jaw. It clicked and sent a wave of pain through my already aching head. I grabbed my coffe and took a drink. Nothing like a little bit of caffeine to take my mind off the rolls of pain radiating throughout it. I unfolded the map and took the tissue paper pieces, fitting them on one by one. 

I finished, and looked.

There it was the entire map of England made out of pieces of Middle Earth.

And then I looked again.  The dot I had drawn for Rivendell was right there, over London, and if I had zoomed in, I would have found that right under it was Kengsington Gardens.


	8. Seeing is Believing

            Sorry about the spelling!  I try harder to go over and review my stuff.  Thank you to Xina who is my newest reviewer.  Here is chapter 8!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Chapter 8:  Seeing is Believing

            I grabbed my notebook and wiped the blood off my nose.  I flipped through it, knowing Tobias wrote his number somewhere in here.  Come on, I thought.  PLEASE!  I found it and grabbed my phone, nearly dropping it in a fit of hysteria.  I could feel my heart pounding.  Tolkien had made the map go over England, so this means Tolkien knew where to go to get into Middle Earth, and that means that he wrote the books based on what he found!  I dialed the number and heard it ring.  PLEASE BE HOME!  I pleaded with the forces of the Universe.  Come on, come on, you're a Tolkien fanatic with no life.  PICK UP DAMN YOU!

            "Hi.....You know the drill....You leave a message....and I forget to call you back."  DAMN YOU TOBIAS!  WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE STAYED IN YOUR HOUSE AND JUST READ TOLKIEN!  I heard the beep.

            "Tobias, it's Delaney.  I think I figured it out.  See Middle Earth is England and there are gateways or portals to places on some of the biggest landmarks and Rivendell is right in Kensington Gardens and there's so many others that I am in shock give me a call back my number is....you have my freaking number!  and if you don't all me back I'll never ever EVER talk to you again.  BYE!"  I took a breath and hung up the phone.  Damn you Tobias.  You had to be out doing something.  I had a brief thought of Tobias and Edith dating.  Oh crap, I thought, and I called Edith.

            "Hello.  You have reached Edith Cameron, the lover of Tolkien and Orlando Bloom.  Please leave a message after the tone, since if you do it before, it will not be heard.  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHH!"  There was the beep and I hesiatated for a moment before leaving a message...with good reason.  Edith's answering maching beeps about six times before you can leave a message.  It was her little personal joke.

            "Edith, it's Laney.  Looks I know you're busy but there may be hope for someone as obssessive as you to...."

            "MEET ORLANDO BLOOM?!"  She had picked up the phone and startled me so badly I dropped the phone.  I quickly picked it up and heard Edith shouting:  "HELLO!?  I"M ALL ALONE!  LANEY?!"

            "I'm right here you moron."  I snapped back.  "And no, there is no hope for you to meet Orlando Bloom so would you drop it?"  I think I hurt her feelings somewhat, since I could hear her moan in the background.  No doubt she was sitting on her couch with a litre of Rocky Road Ice Cream watching the Fellowship of the Ring.  I never was sure, but I thought I had just heard Frodo scream, "NOOOOOOOOO!"  As Gandalf falls into shadow.  And I thought I heard Edith crying.  "Look I need to tell you something.  I think I found a way for people to get into Middle Earth."

            This time Edith dropped the phone, only I did not shout out, "I'M ALL ALONE!"  I could hear Enya's voice singing as she came back on the line.

            "You're kidding me."  She demanded.  "You have to be.  Do you know how long I'VE WAITED!?"  I groaned.  Yes Edith, I thought.  Growing up she once jumped out of a tree because she was so certain that the trajectory would make her fall straight into the Earth and wake up in Middle Earth.  She made it out with a broken arm and a mild concussion.  

            "You're not planning to jump out of another tall object are you?"  I heard Edith snicker, still remembering the age old story we told one another and every other person we come into contact with.  "There's something to do with gateways."  I said, walking back to my kitchen.  "Like Rivendell being in the center of Kensington Gardens and the Shire is somewhere by Stonehenge."  I heard Edith scrambling to get a piece of paper.  "But I'm not sure how they work."

            "What do you mean how they work?"  Edith said.  "You just walk through them.  I hope..."  She winced, I think, as the memory of the tree came back to her.  

            "Well...Tobias was in Middle Earth.  But her could only hear my voice."  I sat down in my kitchen again, looking at the map.  "I'll call you back."  I hung up, trying to arrange my thoughts.  Tobias actually walked into Middle Earth, while everyone els in the park walked by it.  And he could only hear me...I thought harder and harder, trying to get myu thoughts together.  What does Tobias have that I don't?  I thought hard.  Tobias....

            That's when it hit me.  I grabbed the phone again and called Edith's number.  She picked up and said.  "Have you figured it out?"

            "You need to believe in Middle Earth!"  I shouted.

            "What?"  Edith asked me.  I sighed and sat down again, calming myself.

            "Tobias could see Middle Earth because he believes in it."  I said.  "But I don't!  So I couldn't see Middle Earth but he could!"

            "Then why haven't anyone else seen Middle Earth."  Great, I thought.  Just when I'm on the brink of finding something out too.  Edith remained quiet, letting me think.  And then it hit me again.  

            "Because of the belief system!"  I shouted.  "Think about it.  Lord of the Rings wasn't popular until it hit the states.  And then people started believing in it.  Which means Tolkien didn't write what he saw.  Tolkien's followers made Middle Earth by willing it into reality!"  I took a breath.  Whoa, Laney.  For someone as sensible as you this is a jump off a cliff.  "And then after he died Tolkien mania died down.  But now, with the movies, mnore people are believing in Middle Earth..."

            "So they willed it back into reality!"  Edith shouted.  I took a deep breath and nodded, not knowing that Edith could not hear my gesture.  "This calls for a celebration!  I'm packing my bags and going to the Shire!  Later Laney!"  I head a click and was alone on the phone.  I had nothing to do but grin.  So, only believers copuld get back into Middle Earth.  I turned and looked down the hall at my father's library.  I reached into my pocket and pulled out my key.  Well, I guess, there's a first time for everything.

            I walked down the hall and slid my key into the lock.  There was a suddenly shiver rolling up my spine as I turned the key in the lock and the doorknob, and walked inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            THE BIGGEST MYSTERY YET TO COME!  What really happened to Delaney's father.  R&R!  R&R! 


	9. Believing is Seeing

            Eek!  So many reviews....lol.  I love it.  Thank you to everyone for reviewing!  And once again, I apologize for my spelling mistakes.  Guess I was excited because of all these reviews!  22 reviews for 8 chapters is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  I can promise all the readers that:  1)  Middle Earth is coming soon.  2)  My spelling and grammar will improve (and I apologize once again).  And 3)  I cannot promise she will get together with an elf (I was rooting for her and Tobias, but you know) or if there will be any romance at all but hey, I'm still not done and anything's possible.  Thank you all again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Chapter 9:  Believing is Seeing

            My father always kept his library locked, and there were only several times when I had ever been inside.  Unfortunately the memories were fading quickly.  I couldn't figure out what was real, and what my very small imagination had cooked up for me to believe.  

            When I opened the door I was met with a draft of cold air, sending a deep chill down my spine.  It was as if someone had left the window open during the winter and the winter had just never ended.  So I'm not very good with analogies but the library was freezing.  It felt like death itself as I walked inside.  My feet made some strange creaking noises as I moved forward, looking around.

            Nearly everything was caked with dust.  There was not a single spot in the room where a thick layer of snow like powder covered.  Books and papers had sat there for an eternity almost, building up cobwebs and attracting moths and spiders.  I hate spiders.  I literally scream whenever I see one, even if it's miles away.  I looked to my left.  There was a cobweb covered iron staircase, moving upwards in a circle.  Above me was a loft, where the bookshelves (rotting with time, or so it smelled) stood high above the whole room.  I moved towards the left wall, where my father's desk was.  He had books and papers everywhere.  Journals were rotting in a pile in the corner, along with several old sketchbooks.  I could smell decay and had to cough from mountains of dust that were flying towards the ceiling as my socked feet shuffled across the unused floor.

            Everything was made out of mahogany.  My father had the room custom built just after Porscha was born.  That was one of the only times I ever set foot in here.  My father liked the solitude of it.  He liked being away from the world, probably so he could sit on the red velvet couch in the right corner and do nothing but read and draw.  My mother hated these times when he would shut himself up.  It would be just after he'd finished reading to us that he'd go.  Porscha and I would hear the door click, and then the hushed voice and knocking of my mother, trying to coax him out by promising everything from Belgium chocolates to something about her in that black lingerie she got for her wedding.  Not that my sister and I understood that then.

            I walked over to the desk, pulling a book from under the pile of cobwebs and dust.  I blew off the powder, finally seeing its faded cover with the word Journal engraved into the front.  Curiosity prickled my brain.  He's dead, I thought.  He's dead and I'm sure he will not mind if I read his Journal.

            I pulled the cover open, the pages frail within.  It seemed weak as I held it, almost as if it could fall apart at any second.  I flipped through it a bit, looking for the final entry.  And there it was, halfway through, and halfway finished too.  It looked like my father had simply got up and left without it.

            "Well, it's almost time to go.  I'm taking nothing with me although I would like to."  Hang on, I thought.  Where the hell is he going?  I flipped back a few pages.  Then, suddenly, there was the sound of something hitting the floor.  I groaned and knelt down, looking at what had fallen.  Small piles of paper had developed on the floor.  But I knew these piles of paper.  I'd seen them before.  And that's when I realized these were my map pieces.  Well, speaking in better terms, they were my father's but they were exactly like mine.

            I set the diary next to me.  Wait, I thought, my mind going back into detective mode.  Dad has the map pieces.  In his last entry he was writing about going somewhere.  And here they are damn it!  I picked up the pieces slowly.  No, I thought.  No he wouldn't have done that.  Damn it he would not have left me and my sisters for MIDDLE EARTH!  NOT FOR SOME MADE UP FANTASY FICTIONAL WORLD THAT WAS MADE BY A DRUNKEN OLD SEXIST GIT DAMN HIM!

            Before I knew it, I was ripping the pieces.  "Damn you!"  I screamed.  "Damn you to hell!  You made me believe that you were dead for WHAT?!  A walk in a FUCKING FICTIONAL WORLD!  YOU BASTARD!"  I was screaming and screaming, and crying, ripping up the map pieces so easily.  I was throwing the pieces over the floor.  "DAMN YOU!"

            The phone rang at that moment.  I grabbed my keys next to me and wiped my nose.  My head was throbbing again.  Damn you.  I thought.  Damn all you Tolkien fanatics who willed this place into reality.  Damn you for taking away my father!

            "Hello?"  I said calmly into the phone.

            "Hey."  Great, it's Tobias.  Better hang up you hallucinogenic bastard before I bite your head off.  Instead, I swallowed my anger and answered him like a friend.

            "What's up?"  I asked, forgetting the message I had left on his machine only half and hour ago.  He waited.  "Oh, yeah.  The message.  Look um….this map.  It goes over England and because you believe in Tolkien you have a one way ticket in.  I'll write the article okay?"

            "Hey….hey….wait.  What's wrong?"  Oh no, my acting skills wore off.  I leaned into the wall trying to sort out my thoughts.  I sighed.

            "Look, I'm just….I'm really tired and I would really just love to go to bed okay?  I….I…"  I keeled over into the hallway, balling again.  Tobias fell silent on the other line.  "I just found out my father's not dead okay.  I just found out he ran off to Middle Earth like a chicken with his head cut off.  I just found out he abandoned my family for the Damn BOOK!"  Tobias said nothing.  "Why?  Why would you do that to someone?  Why would you do that to your own family?!"  Tobias said nothing.  "Why are you going to do it?"

            "Look Delaney."  His voice wasn't soft.  His voice was cold.  His voice was as if I'd just killed him over and over.  "I don't think you really love your father."

            "How dare you!"  I screamed.  "I loved my father!"

            "Loved him.  Past tense Lane.  Any writer knows that.   You loved him Delaney.  Face it.  You love your father like you love those books.  Just some decoration for you."  He hung up.  

            My heart skipped a beat, and I still held the phone to my ear.  I just sat there in my hallway, in complete and utter shock.  Decoration?  A decoration for me?  Like I enjoyed my father's death and disappearance?  And how about my mother's lying?  MY FATHER WAS A BASTARD!  My father didn't deserve to have a family.

            I dropped the phone to the floor and stormed back into the library.  I grabbed the Journal off the floor and flipped through the pages.  "Where were you going?"  I asked myself.  "Where the hell were you going?"  I sped read all the pages, and then I found it. 

            "So to my family, when they find this, I'm going to Lothlorien.  I know I was always Elrond, but I need to do this.  For me."  I ran back to the kitchen, looking at the map.  Lothlorien.  Great, right on the coast.  I grabbed my car keys, his diary, and my coat. 

            Time to settle the score…with my own father.

Okay…..next chapter….perhaps some sense will be talked into the heroin.  Otherwise she might do something crazy.


	10. Impulsive

            Thank you for all your reviews.  Okay, I admit it, her and Legolas were destined from the beginning.  Kidding!  No way.  Sorry to everyone who writes stories like that but they aren't really my piece of cake.  I was planning to hook her and Tobias up in the end and don't worry about her throwing a hissy in front of some elves.  I will try to keep this as close to instincts of elves as possible because I know they'd kill a human chick in weird clothes without a second thought if she marched up and demanded to see her father.  Perhaps I should add in Orlando Bloom for shits and giggles?  Nah....  And this is one of the final chapters.  Once again thank you to everyone who reviewed so nicely.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Chapter 10:  Impulsive

            Alright, so running out of my house after screaming at Tobias wasn't the coolest thing to do.  But honestly, I have been through hell.  I just figured out Middle Earth is right here in England, my father ran off to go have elf babies with Galadriel, I may or may not have a concussion from slipping on the kitchen floor, and did I forget to mention that I don't even know what I'm doing considering I don't even believe in Middle Earth and am probably gonna kill myself trying to find it?  Edith was right.  I am an impulsive moron.

            So here I was, in my car, without the radio on because my head was still throbbing from my fall on the kitchen floor and I'm thinking what the hell am I doing?  I pulled to a complete stop and got to the side of the road.  This is unfair I though.  Completely unfair!  I banged my fists on the steering wheel for a moment.  Why did this stuff have to happen to me?  I'm a good person.  I pay my bills, I'm still a virgin, I did okay in High School and I've never once had impure thoughts about men.  Well....unless you count those times when I was obssessed with Hayden Christensen and bought four copies of Life as a House just like that?  Damn Edith.  I knew I was impulsive....but why did she have to rub it in my face like that?  

            I got out of the car for a moment, breathing in the cool air.  It was foggy and wet, and I could feel the water sticking to my face.  My breath came out in clouds and I could hear a little thunder off in the distance.  Damn England and all the rain.  The coast was going to be insane with weather.

            I sat on the hood of my car for a moment, thinking silently to myself.  I'm so not impulsive, I thought.  I'm just angry and lonely and I WANT MY DADDY!  So now I'm childish too.  Great.  I can't blieve how losing your father can make you react.  I'm sitting in the freezing cold on the hood of my car crying for a father who left me for no apparant reason and wishing that there was some hole I could just crawl to and die.  No, I thought, not until he dies.  Not until he knows how much he hurt me.

            Oh shut up Delaney!  My mind said to me.  He's gone okay?  Big deal!  You said yourself he didn't deserve to have a family!  So please just shut up!

            I wanted to lock out what my own mind was telling me.  I wanted my father to know that what he had done was painful and that for the past 15 years I was weeping for him and by not opening his books for that length of time I was punishing him.  And by the looks of it, I was doing a terrible job.  My father has not been in my life for 15 years.  WHY TRY TO GET HIM BACK NOW?!

            I think I sat there for at least an hour.  By the time I even thought about getting up my hands were numb and I couldn't feel the majority of my toes.  At the time when I even thought about getting up, head lights were moving down the street and coming for me.  Strangely I looked up, my pupils growing smaller with the approaching light.  The car came to a stop next to mine, and the door opened.

            Tobias looked at me as he got out of the car.  He walked over to me, looking at me with his brown eyes.  God, I thought.  You're so adorable and clueless it's all great and I would love you right now if you hugged me.  I pushes my knees down the car and waited for him to say something.  He didn't.  He walked over and hugged me.

            I hugged back, burying my head into his shoulder.  You know he smelled fantastic that night?  He was wearing some really nice colongue or something because I swear, it was nice.  But before I could enjoy it I started balling again, right there into his shoulder.  He patted me on the back.  My stomach was in a knot.  I love you....I thought to myself.  I love you because you're the male version of Edith...well....almost.  You're a lot taller.  And you have less fluffy hair.  And you probably don't own a psycho dog that's twice your size.  But I still love you.

            He let me go a moment later.  I just looked at him.  I hadn't noticed the resemblance between him and young Sean Connery before.  He had a sort of Bond look to him.  

            "Hey."  He said to me, and I sniffled a little, looking up at him.  "Come on, I'll take you home."

            I could only nod.  He helped me off the roof of my car and took me over to his passenger door, opening it for me.  I slid into the car.  It was a nice car, I had to say that.  Leather interior, black steering wheel, red exterior.  It was sweet.  If I hadn't been so depressed at that moment I would have made some commetns about it, but quite frankly all I wanted to do was go to bed.  Or beat the crap out of my father.  I think it was more like beating up my father and then curling into my bed.  Tobias got into the driver's seat and glanced over at me for a moment.  I didn't say anything.  Tobias sighed.

            "I'm sorry."  I said.  He shook his head.

            "I shouldn't have hung up on you."  He replied.  "And I shouldn't have said that about your father."  I shook my head.  I couldn't believe I shook my head, but there was 'Sensible Delaney' present now.  She...I started my little rant.

            "You had every right to say that."  I said, not agreeing completely with myself, but still accepting that it was true.  "When my father died I didn't even look at the books anymore because they reminded me of him.  Christ they even smelled like him."  I took a moment.  "My father was the biggest part of my life, and the second I found out he was gone I went insane.  I was an overachiever and I buried myself in my room and in my work.  And then I just kept the books there."  I looked at him sincerely.  "You were right Tobias.  I do keep them all like a decoration."

            There was a moment where neither of us said nothing.  Tobias didn't even pull the car out of the lane.  He looked at the road.  I thought about what he had said to me on the phone.

            "There's one thing I want to know though."  I looked at him again.  "How did you know?"  Tobias gave a weak grin and turned to face me.  

            "Edith."  He said to me laughing.  "She called me actually after you told her and we got talking.  She's a very nice person.  Very easy to talk to..."  He thought about something for a moment.  "Does she always change the topic back to how hot Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp are?"  I gave a weak grin and nodded.

            "Yes she likes to do that."  I laughed a little.  Tobias giggled.  He actually giggled.  I never knew men could giggle.  "So what else did she tell you?"

            "That you've never officially had a good relationship with a guy and that you are impulsive and tall."  I groaned.  Edith will die.  She really will.  "But that you're a good friend and kind of like Samwise."  I smiled.  Later, I thought.  Edith can die later.  Perhaps tomorrow.  Or next week?  Or after my father I can kill Edith.  Yes, that sounds good.

            "She said that?"  I asked him.  He nodded.  I couldn't help but smile.  "Edith and I have been friends for years.  I don't think there's a bad thing I can say about her...say for the whole 'I love Orlando Bloom thing."  Tobias laughed.

            "Look, Delaney, I uh...."  He kind of paused for a moment.  "I um..."

            "What?"  I asked.  He looked to me and then the road and then back at me suddenly leaning forward and pecking me on the lips.  I stopped for a moment and looked at him confused.  I giggled nervously a little, and Tobias pulled back.  I smiled and blushed, leaning back.  He looked confused.

            "What?"  He asked.  I grinned, beaming.  

            "Well...."  I said.  Tobias still looked confused.  I looked back at him.  He laughed.  "What?"  He asked me.  I smiled at him again and gave a nervous laugh.  

            "Nothing."  I replied.

            "What?"

            "Nothing."

            "WHAT!?"  He was honestly confused about why I was laughing I genuinely did not want to admit what I was about to, but I did it anyways.

            "That was my first kiss."  I snapped back.  Tobias looked at me seriously.  "I've never been kissed before okay?"  This time Tobias gave a weak laugh.

            "You have never been kissed before?"  I shook my head no.  "That's insane!  You, the almighty and powerful Delaney Marks have never been kissed before?"  

            "Well you don't need to laugh about it."  I said.  Tobias leaned over and kissed me again.  And this time I mean really kissed.  I mean time standing slow, fireworks, heart-pounding, 'I'll love you forever and never ever leave you', Backstreet Boys serenading, end of movie kiss.  I just sat there like a moron, not knowing what to do.  Tobias pulled back to the driver's seat.  He sighed.

            "Mine too."  He said, and started the car.  I gaped.  That was the nicest kiss I've ever had (granted the only one).  He drove forward and was just about to make a U-Turn when I stopped him.  

            "Keep going."  I said.  He looked over at me.  "I still have one more thing to do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Just as I had suspected the coast was hell.  The waves were bouncing off the coast and creating white foam along the shoreline.  It had taken us until dawn's first light stretched over the horizon to get there, and I damn well wasn't leaving.  I looked over the coast.  The portal to Lothlorien was here.  And I needed Tobias to find it.  

            "So...you're going to find your father...and then what?"  I shrugged.  

            "I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."  I replied.  "I had figured seeing him again might trigger some unwanted emotions."  

            "You're gonna kill him aren't you?"  He asked.  I shrugged.

            "Depends.  I could go for something like that."

            "Have you even thought about how you're gonna find him?"  He asked.  "The second you show up in Lothlorien you're gonna be shot by the millions of Elves armed with bows and arrows!"

            I stopped, having a brief vision of me as a pin cushion due to Legolas and his other pansy elf friends.  Wait...Legolas lived in Mirkwood.

            "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."  I said, walking to the rocky coast.  Tobias shook his head, mumbling something about me being impulsive and insane.  

            "Yes I'm sure they'll be very happy to listen to the insane girl shouting about her father and hopw he left her all those years ago."  Tobias retorted.  "That'll be one hell of a bridge to cross."  

            "Hey, I never said I had the whole reunion figure out."  I replied sadistically.  "I said I was going to find my father."

            "You have no idea what kind of protections there are on Lothlorien do you?"  He replied.  I shook my head.  "You're hopeless."

            "Hopeless yes, Giving up no."  I said, walking down the side of a particularly nasty slope.  My shoes were twisting over the rocky surface of the ground.  Damn me for wearing heels.  I bent down and steadied myself with my hand, moving slowly over the rocks and dirt.  Tobias followed and we were both moving down the cliffs on the coast of England.  I could feel my fingers moving over something smooth suddenly, and then rough.  I looked at what I was touching.  There were markings.  I got to the ground and looked at it.  A message on the rock face.

            "J.M. Was here."  There was an arrow pounting into the cave next to it.  I looked inside.  It was hollow and low.  I had to crawl inside, and I could hear Tobias follow.  I looked around as the cave suddenly became tall enough to stand in.  It wasn't big, maybe three feet wide.  I walked inside it, seeing all over the walls elvish markings off kinds.  That was when I saw the signature on the opposite wall.  "J.R.R.Tolkien."

            "Look."  I said, and then the cave was filled with echoing from the waves.  Immediately after the cave was full of water to my knees.  Tobias looked at the places where we had come in.  Water was filling the cave.  And just as we were going to crawl out, the entrance closed to a slit, and continued to fill with water.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R!


	11. Drowning

            Guess what?  Here's another cliffhanger.  And I hope the whole kissing thing wasn't too upfront.  Personally I think it was sweet...but I'm the author.  THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Chapter 11:  Drowning

            I think it was the moment I saw the rocks close that I actually could see my life flash before my eyes.  Lot's of people say it doesn't happen, but the water was rising above my knees, and surely to God I was seeing some crazy stuff.  I banged on the rocks with my fists but they were like a closed door.  I wasn't getting out, and neither was Tobias.  Great, I thought.  Just great.

            "What the hell?!"  I screamed at the rocks.  Half of me knew they weren't listening.  The other half was telling them to open and still believed that they would.  Tobias was too busy looking at the wall.  I doubted he even knew there was water up past his knees now.  He was moving his fingers over the elvish.  I groaned and pushed my hands against the solid wall.  "DAMN IT!"  

            "Wha....HEY!  When did the tide come in?  What did you do with the door?"  Must contain feelings of rage for Tobias....Must contain feelings of rage for Tobias.  I groaned again and tried pushing at the rocks.  Tobias looked back at the elvish, shaking his finger.  He was decifering it.  "Delaney?"

            "What?!"  I shouted back, my voice echoing and making it hard to think with the booming sound of my voice everywhere.  Tobias barely noticed.  He continued to look, moving his finger over the writing on the wall.  

            "Look.  This writing here is taking about gateways from one world to the next."  He said.  "I can't read it for certain but there's talk of well placed portals.."  He put these in quotes, "That would allow the passage of believers in the Valar."  He sounded like Moses or something, speaking of Middle Earth like it was the freaking Bible.  I pushed against the rocks again.  Tobias finally turned around.  "Once again, when did the tide come in?"

            I groaned again, thinking quickly and mumbling, "Must containg feelings of rage for Tobias...Must contain.....DAMN IT THE TIDE IS COMING IN AND WE'RE STUCK AND WE'RE GONNA DROWN!"  My voice echoed again, less this time because of the rising water.  Tobias looked confused, but he shrugged and turned around, looking at the writing again.  I pushed against the rock wall again, starting to cry a little.  I can't die!  I cannot die!  I'm not going to die this young without losing and gaining a couple of things!  And I will not die with a Priest of the Tolkien BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD!

            "Delaney."

            "What?"  

            I turned and looked but there was nothing there.  Nothing and no one.  Tobias was gone.  I looked around.  Where could he have gone?  Was he under the water?  If he grabbed ankle and made me scream I'd kill him.  Literally, I'd kill him.  I would put my hands around his neck and squeeze off the Tolkien-loving head of him.  But he didn't grab my ankle.  He didn't even show up.  He wasn't there.  He was in Middle Earth while I was going to die 23 years old.  What would Edith say in my Eulogy?  "She was a good friend but she didn't believe in Tolkien so she wasn't worth a dime?"  I can see it now.  As she mentions that I hated Tolkien all my family and friends leave mumbling something about me being a stupid girl.

            NOOOO!!!!!!!  Nobody leave my funeral!  PLEEASSE!  And then there, in the afterlife, at the gates of heaven, there's St Peter.  "Sorry you can't come to heaven because you Bad Mouthed the real God."  And I'll look all confused as Tolkien comes down from sky in a ball of light and says, "To hell with you, unbeliever!"

            And then I'll fall to hell, but the Devil down there will be a giant flaming eye with a white haired dude as his sidekick and they'll say, "To heaven with you unbeliever!"  And I'll spend the rest of my eternity going between Heaven and Hell being called an unbeliever.  And all I can see is going by heaven with Tobias on the other side, macking on Edith with vodka martinis and cigars, while I get called an unbeliever forever.

            I sat down on the ground, in all the water and everything.  I just sat there, thinking about the vision of Edith and Tobias making out and drinking and smoking and....and....WHERE WAS I!?  Edith that guy stealing BELIEVER!  I was going to kill her when I got home!  If I got home.  I'd be here for a while, waiting for me to die.  Unless...  NO!  I was not just going to believe in Middle Earth out of selfishness and my own good.  The water reached my neck.  "I BELIEVE IN YOU TOLKIEN LET ME IN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"  Nothing.  I was still in the cave.  "PLEASE!"

            I walked over to the wall.  Alright, I thought.  How does Tobias do this.  Does her just believe or does he really Believe?  Does he think about anything in particular or...Okay enough guy thoughts.  I do not think Arwen is hot.  

            I tapped on the walls.  Come on....come on....  "IS THIS PUNISHMENT FOR NOT BELIEVING IN TOLKIEN!  HUH?  COME ON!  IS IT OR ARE YOU JUST BEING A BASTARD BECAUSE YOU LEFT ME FOR NOTHING!  YOU LEFT ME FOR SOME FICTIONAL WORLD!  YOU LEFT ME OKAY!"  I took a deep breath.  "AND I HATE YOU AND I WANNA KILL YOU AND GUESS WHAT?  I DO BELIEVE IN MIDDLE EARTH...I ALWAYS DID!  ALWAYS!"  I banged on the wall.  "I HATED IT BECAUSE IT REMINDED ME OF..."  There was a violent wind.  The world suddenly spun.  The water started filling unnsturally fast.  It hit my hip.  "IT REMINDED ME OF YOU!"  The water hit my neck.  "I HATE YOU!"

            And then the water covered my head.  I pushed upward, trying to breathe.  There was no more air.  There wasn't any other space. 

            "I hate you..."  I thought, and then there was a bright light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!  Another Cliffie!  Wait....NO!! Not the Cookie torture!  EEEKKKKK!!!!!


	12. Into the Mist

Reviews Reviews Reviews and guess what...another cliffie!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~          

            Chapter 12:  Into the Mist

            Ow....Note to self.  Moving hurts.  Really hurts.  Ow....Opening eyes hurts too.  Ow....Things I see after I open my eyes really hurts.  I can't see anything.  Oh great, it's light.  A few more hours, go away.  I turned over on something soft and then the ache that was once dull was now a full pounding pain.  To put it in lamen's terms, I honestly feel like I was just run over -multiple times- by a freaking mack truck.  My eyes opened and it was like I was in the movie Reqieum for a Dream.  My whole world was like my pupils were massive and I was seeing everything with too much light and too much everything.  

            "Morning."  

            "AHHHHHHH!"  I screamed and kicked out in the direction of the voice.  I think I hit something but drowning and then awakening to a strange voice in a bright world with no idea where the heck you are can do that to you.  The thing I hit kind of dodged me.  I blinked a couple of times and finally saw him.  Okay, blink again.  It's Dad.

            The anger that I had been feeling was gone.  I didn't want to strangle him for some reason.  I sat up in bed.  Alright, I thought.  I'm really freaked out now.  I think my facial expression showed that.  My father laughed.  

            "Dad?"  I asked.  He smiled and nodded.  The faded and my hands that had once been so keen on strangling him were now folded on my lap in cruel defience.  I didn't want to kill him.  I wanted to know.  "Why?"

            "Why what?"  He asked me.  I groaned and held my head with one hand.  He can't be serious, I thought.  

            "Why?"  I asked again, looking around.  "Why'd you leave me?"  His smile faded.  I looked at him sternly, trying to wipe the tears out of my eyes from the pain that was trying to kill me.  The ache in my torso and legs and arms was okay.  The emplosion of pain in my head wasn't so cool.  Why don't I carry tylenol with me?  My father stood up.  Wait, hold it for a second.  Why's my dad in Elrond-ish robes?  Why's he got long hair?   WHY IS HE SO FRUITY RIGHT NOW?! 

            "The night I left I wasn't myself."  He began.  "Your mother and I had been fighting.  She was angry about my secrets and my Library being more of a wife to me then she was."  He turned and looked at me, his green eyes piercing through my skin.  "So I had to leave."

            "Why would you leave us though?"  I demanded him.  "Why would you leave your children and your wife because of one stupid fight?"

            "It doesn't matter now."  He said to me.

            "It matters to me!"  I snapped back, having him run over and say, "SHHHHHH!"  very loudly.

            "Keep your voice down.  You think any of the occupants here were happy to know I was bringing a shouting tourist here?  They thought you were a sorceress with the way you were wailing.  When you finally came through the portal they were about to kill you."

            "Bet you would have enjoyed that."  I said, mumbling almost.  "What's with your Celeborn imitation clothes?"  

            "I have a way with elves."  He replied.  "Took a lot of pleading and bargaining and gaining trust and making deals."

            "Deals?"

            "Laney do you want to know why I'm here in these clothes with you?"  I didn't nod.  He knew damn well what I wanted to know.  He was probably leaving me without an answer because he wanted to be a bum.  "You see Middle Earth is going through a weird time right now.  The story keeps repeating in a full circuit.  Just when you think the stories over and going to start on something Tolkien never wrote, it starts all over again.  The Fellowship has visited here....oh maybe 3 or 4 times.  It just keeps happening."

            "What do I have to do with this?"  I asked.  My father sighed.

            "Belief."  He said to me.  "I raised you and your siblings to believe so this place would always stay in existence.  But belief isn't enough now.  I need people to come to Middle Earth so the story can continue."  

            "Wait, hold on a second."  I said to him, clutching my head softly.  "You're talking about bringing people from our Earth to this Earth?"  Wow, I confuse myself.  My father nodded.  

            "That was the bargain."

            "Bargain with who?"  My father sighed again.  He looked out the window.  The world had a certain mist to it.  I felt so empty, like my father had scooped out all my insides with what he had said.

            "Tolkien."  He said.  I looked shocked.  My father laughed.  "I know it sounds crazy but he's still alive.  People tend to stay alive a lot longer here."  He laughed again.  I gave no reaction.  This triggered him to fade out.  "I promised him to bring the means of allowing the Fellowship to move on.  He promised me safe haven."

            "He can do that?"

            "It's hard to explain.  But now that your here, Delaney we can start bringing people here!  We can start making Middle Earth what it never was.  We can make it more then what it was."  He sat back down on the bed with me, looking right into my eyes.  I looked back.  Think Laney, think.  You're father's asking you to bring people here.  Your father's asking you to drop everything and simply come here with him and recruit others to come so some story can stop going in a circuit.  He wants you to be like him. 

            I stood up and looked down at my father.  He looked back.  We kind of stood there, mesmerized by one another's stares for a moment.

            "I..."  I began, unsure of how to say what I was about to.  My father was hanging on my every word.  "I want you to show me where Tobias is, and then I want to go home."  My father stood up and opened his mouth to say something.  I stopped him.  "Look Dad, this whole set up works for you.  But I have a life.  I have a mother and two sisters and a brother.  I have friends and I used to have a father who's family was his whole life."  That cut him deep, but it had to be said.  "I want to go home."

            My father didn't say anything.  He walked away from me and opened the door.  I moved to it, looking out.  Okay, where in the books is there a freaky tower where a waterfall is running right underneath it?  I had to ponder this as I looked over.  The bottom was hidden under a layer of mist and foam that was so thick I couldn't see anything past 20 or so feet.  My father looked at me.

            "You can jump, or you can stay, your choice."  Damn he wasn't making this easy.  I looked down again, just making sure I was seeing what I was seeing. 

            "So it's jump or forever be here?"  My father nodded painfully.  I walked around, looking into the room.  The door on the opposite wall was so close.  Jump and possibly get splattered on the bottom of wherever it ends?  Or walk through a door and live elvish for the rest of my life?  I looked back at the waterfall.  

            "I just wanted to tell you."  I shouted over the booming of the water.  My father looked at me curiously.  "I know you don't care but...I missed you.  I missed 8 years with you.  And now that I know you had a way back, I hate you Dad.  You really are dead to me."  

            Saying that, I did the unthinkable.  I ran over to the door my father was opening.  I shut my eyes and jumped out, spreading out my arms and diving to the invisible abyss below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            I swear~  Last cliffie!  Well. maybe.


	13. Treading Water

Okay, as I promised, there will be no more cliffies. Well...perhaps maybe a small cliffie, like a mogul or something but not a Mount Everest Cliffie. Meep! (ish mobed by reviewers carrying pitchforks.) An answer to the question about the waterfall, there is no waterfall in Lothlorien. I know this because I A) Have read the books and B) Have a obsessed friend (who reviews) who helps me keep my info straight. However, the waterfall is just an illusion. Really, there is no door, there is no waterfall and those who see it are Mentally Insane. I apologize for the inconvenience.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 13: Treading Water  
  
Alright, I AM GOING TO KILL THE AUTHOR OF WHOEVER WROTE THIS STORY! I will kill Tolkien for putting a million mile high waterfall as his portal back to the real world. Drowning is one thing. Tumbling to my possible death and having my body splattered when I hit the possible rocks below is not my idea of a good death! Why could you have put me on the other end of a bow and arrow or something?! Not falling through water, mist and rock. But then I remember that Tolkien is a LOSER!  
  
After having my tantrum in middair, I continued to fall. I had to admit, the falling was rough, but the mist and the water, moving over me was kind of relaxing. Then I had to remind myself, once again, that this was not fun, and my plan sucked. Because I had failed to do so little things on my list of things to do before I die, including the newest addition kill both Father and Tolkien. My first thing to do was reconcile with my mother. Well, it's a little late for that one. My second thing to do was reconcile again with my mother if the first time of reconciling went to hell. So 1 and 2 were useless. The third was give Edith my collection of Tolkien. Well, that goes without saying that when I go missing, Edith will snatch them away before a funeral has been prepared. So scratch number 3.  
  
Number 4 was fall in love with numerous amounts of men and never get married. Well, I finished off the never getting married part. But I never fell in love with any men. So number four I couldn't finish either. Number 5 kind of tagged after that with Avoid numerous amounts of men I fell in love with. Since I didn't finish number 4, number 5 was wasted as well. The sixth was secretely (the secret was key, as with Edith these two could get me killed) Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Six was going to hell to.  
  
Number 7 was pick up and read The Lord of the Rings. Unless the waterfall has a secret copy hidden inside it, there was no chance of that happening.  
  
As I fell I went through my whole list 86 things I was to do, and out of the 86 I only completed 3. The first was Number 27: Watch every episode of the X-Files in order of first season to Ninth. I had to stop at the Fourth Season for a moment, and after the week long agony of hearing Scully and Mulder scream at one another I passed out from exhastion and woke up a day later with a hangover (not kidding). The second was Number 36: Get kissed. Thanks to Tobias I wasn't so incomplete before I died. And the third was Number 67: Go to the Oxford Libraries. So my whole life wasn't necessarily a complete waste. I still never did 83 things, comething which made me entirely more angry (if it was at all possible, especially in the situation I was in).  
  
I was honestly freezing at what I had dubbed the 2 hour mark. I had my watch on, and although very difficult to move my arm I checked it out and realized that for two hours I had been stuck in this neverending hell hole. My fingers were numb. That cold feeling was moving up my arms and they were becoming stiff again. I tried to think of reasons why I hadn't stopped falling yet. This was mainly to pass the time, because I wasn't really thinking about very much of anything. I was just stuck there, like for some reason I was floating endlessly. It wasn't so much to a death, it was more to something else.  
  
That was when I hit, and it wasn't comfy. The sting moved over my legs into a snap on my chest. At first I thought I had died because of it, and my eyes were closed because at any moment there was going to be bright light in front of me and I was just going to go towards it. But a second later I pushed my eyelids open and my feet against the bottom, before I broke the surface of the water.  
  
I gasped more air, pushing my hair out of my face with my still frozen hands. I looked upward to see the sun shining and the birds singing. Damn you cruel irony, I thought, and looked around. I'd fallen into some sort of lake or something, right in the center of a pond in fact. Luckily it was empty. I was somewhere in the woods by Edith's house. DAMN YOU CRUEL IRONY!  
  
I stood up, the water at my chin and starting treading water, not sure if I wanted to crawl out just yet. A second later I'd wished I had since there was a second splash and I was back under the water.  
  
"OW! TOBIAS!" I slapped him more out of instinct then anger when we both surfaced again. He was laughing even as I did so and looked around before grabbing me in a bear hug.  
  
"That was the best vacation I've ever been on!" He shouted and twirled around with me, trying to breathe. I pounded him on the back and he let me go into the water again, still shouting around like a maniac! "You have no idea Delaney! I saw Galadriel! I met Tolkien! And it cost me nothing!" He looked at me. "And where the hell were you?"  
  
"Drowning, talking, thinking about killing people." I replied maliciously. And then I was falling down a frigging waterfall for the rest of my life!" Tobias looked at me cluelessly, and said, very painlessly, "I have no idea what you're talking about but you are so cute when you're angry!" Hey, Tobias, remember those thoughts about homocide I was having? Instead, I hugged myself from the cold anf shivered softly.  
  
"Come on." He said to me, putting a soaked arm over my shoulder. We were walking out of the pond when there was a strange sound from above.  
  
"What the...?" Tobias began, but he never finished.  
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  
  
"Look out!"  
  
SPLASH!  
  
"OW!"  
  
"EDITH!!" I screamed in angry, having been pumelled by two falling human beings in the past second. She got out of the water and flailed around helplessly.  
  
"I CAN'T BLOODY SWIM!" She shouted, before grabbing onto Tobias for dear life. "Oh, Hi." She blushed a moment. "Hey! What the hell are you two doing in my pond?"  
  
"What the hell were you doing?!" I demanded back at her. She grinned giddily.  
  
"It was great! I went to the Shire and when I came out of the doorway, the Hobbits saw me and at first they were a little afraid, but I told them I was a Hobbit as well and the accepted me!" She grinned and splashed the water a little bit. "And I was in the middle of drinking a barrel of ale when suddenly, this guy came up and threw me into a different kind of portal where I fell to here....and I wanna do it again!" I dropped my head into my fist. Trust Edith to be accepted by Hobbits. I'm still not sure how she pulled it off, but Hobbits are unnaturally welcoming folk, I think. I couldn't remember the books. "And you two?"  
  
"He was looking at Galadriel and I was talking to a dead man." And I left it at that.  
  
"Oh....well...." Edith got that look on her face which means, of course, she's about to say one of those weird saying she uses to break the silence with. "I....like....LORD OF THE RINGS!" I groaned again. Damn you Cruel Irony!  
  
The three of us walked back to Edith's house and she gave us a drive to our cars. Note to self: Never trust Edith to drive when she's just been to Middle Earth. Honestly we nearly went off the road about three times. She dropped me off, giving me and Tobias a moment to say goodbye before I got out of the car. Tobias got into the front seat and they each gave a farewell shout, "I LOVE LORD OF THE RINGS!" Before blaring, "Concerning Hobbits," on the stereo. I got into my car, sitting down and smiling, and for the first time in a long time, it was a real smile.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Well, the story's almost done! Chapter 14 will probably be the last chappie. Please give your reviews! 


	14. The Road Goes Ever On And On

Unfortunately yes, this is the last chapter. I know my story is the shortest thing I've ever wrote (14 chapters for me is short, yes) but all good things must come to an end sometime. I feel if I make it any longer it will be so long and drawn out that everyone will just lose interest. I'll put as much as I can into this chapter and then I'll consider doing a sequel/continuation. I'd like a little feedback about that. But in the end, I just wanna thank everyone who reviewed so nicely (I didn't get flamed! "jumps around giddily*) and this was my favourite story to write (probably related to Edith, but I'm not sure). Thank you for all your support and bearing with me. Okay....onward to the final chapter of The Tolkien Conspiracy.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Chapter 14: The Road Goes Ever On And On...  
  
Edith studied me carefully on her doorstep as she held the majestic set of novels she had been wanting since she first met me. "Are you sure?" She asked, half wanting to run and hide in her house built on Lord of the Rings, curling into a fetal position, stroking them while saying, "Precioussssssss." The other half of her knowing that our friendship was worth more then Lord of the Rings (at least to me). I nodded, brushing a bang out of my face and looking back at her. She stared for a moment at the books, running her fingers over them, like she was memorizing them without noticing. I at first thought the possibility of her running inside, crouching in a corner and saying, "Preciousss..." Was going to happen. Instead, she leaned forward (on her tiptoes of course, Edith's not really that tall) and hugged me.  
  
Now, in the course of our friendship, Edith has only ever initiated a hug with me...two times. Once when I bought her the Spider-Man Soundtrack for her birthday. And the other when I drove her to Oxford Libraries and allowed her to flirt with those two Scholars. But now was third, and I couldn't miss out because Edith doesn't usually initiate a hug, so I leaned forward a little bit and hugged back.  
  
"Thanks." She said, and released me. I smiled and nodded again.  
  
"No problem."  
  
"You're sure?" She said finally. I wanted to keep them. I knew I did. I felt like it was actually the Ring calling me and saying, "Delaney....come on Delaney...." I nodded though anyways and Edith smiled. She jumped up and down, carefuly not to drop them. I walked back to my car and waved a little bit, having a few more errands to run before going back to work.  
  
I went past Tobias's house, having never seen it before. He was doing well for a guy just in University. Nice house with trees in the front yard and in the back. I could see the resemblance between his and Edith's. I just hoped his house had some right angles in it. Most of Edith's house is oval or circle. There's a few room that are actally rooms, But mainly it's actually kind of nausiating being in that house. I pulled the papers from my Dad's Library, all the Lord of the Rings stuff I could find shoved into a file box and headed to the front door. Setting it down I rang the doorbell. Why does it sound oddly like the beginning of Rohan's theme to the Two Towers? I didn't want to ask. Note to self: Never tell Edith there is Doorbells that sound like the Lord of the Rings. She'd get all of them and set them around her house, and just for fun press them all the time and make Cougar have a seizure.  
  
"Hey." He said as he opened the door. I kind of stopped. What was he wearing? He was in nothing but boxer shorts and a old concert t-shirt. That was kind of un-Tobias. Still, I have to say he looks pretty good. "How's it going?"  
  
"Fine actually, I was going through a lot of my Dad's stuff and I came across some stuff you might like." I handed him the box, quite happy ti be rid of it. Nobody has any idea about how much this stuff really weighs. He smiled and set it aside.  
  
"Thanks. I was actually gonna ask you about that. How are you with the whole...sitaution." I liked how he had tried to put it lightly.  
  
I smiled and confidently said, "I'm okay." Tobias grinned. "I mean I know it hasn't changed but...I dunno. Anyways I have to get to work so...um...I'll see you around." I said, waving. He smiled and shouted at me.  
  
"Hey Delaney!" I turned around and he ran to meet me on the path. His neighbours, which I had noticed were on the porch, were a little shocked to see him like that. He stood in front of me and smiled again. "Come out with me." He said to me. "Come with me to dinner tonight." I softly grinned and nodded. He pecked me on the cheek and ran back inside, shouting out, "7:00!"  
  
I got back in my car, the smile never leaving my face. I am going to dinner with Tobias, I thought to myself. I am. Not Edith. The thoughts of my death immediately changed. I was so gonna be making out with him in Heaven! I pulled out of his driveway, still laughing a little, before driving for my day at work.  
  
Work sucks, litterally. I mean with the whole Tobias thing I at least had something to do. Now it was all just type up the article and get it in for publishing. Do as I had promised for Tobias, I thought with a girly-like blush. I had to say it was the finest thing I'd ever written, say for the fact that it made me look like a crack pot. I didn't mind. I remembered my father saying once, "Sometimes we all have to look insane to do the sane things." At least I think it was my father. For all I know it could have been my brother, but he never said anything like that.  
  
I put in the last few words before printing off a rough draft. I glanced it over, looking around for the usual (spelling mistakes, grammatical errors...Reporters have to do that) And found about seventeen. When I get typing I don't stop, so I usually have to make about 5 or 6 rough drafts before they even make it to the Editor. I was printing out what I hoped to be my final copy, when there was a knock on my door. I looked at it, thinking it could be Tobias. Who knows? Maybe this time I'll be seeing Hogwarts? Instead, the man who walked in wasn't Tobias, but I let him sit anyways.  
  
I couldn't look at him. It felt like I was ashamed to be with him and he with me. Still I willed my head up, his eyes averting my stare. I ripped the article from the printer and got his attention, still angry and upset.  
  
"You know..." He began. "I remember when I used to read to you and Porsha." He said. Oh no, he was trying to get me to talk. "I just remember that one night we were talking about the end of the books, the time just before I left." I lowered my eyes to that. The time you buggered off? I thought with a sneer. "And I was just at the part, where Frodo was going to the gray havens, and we were at the part where Frodo begins to say, 'So I thought once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them." I opened my mouth to interject, wanting to scream him out of my office. "Neither of you girls understood that." He replied, "And when I tried to explain it to you, neither of you thought it was fair that Same couldn't go." He gave a weak laugh, trying to lighten the mood.  
  
"You could have said something. Anything." I said. He shook his head.  
  
"What would I have said?"  
  
"Anything!" I shouted as loud as I could through the building. "You could have said something instead of buggering off like that. You could have told us a quote for the Almighty novels but no, you just up and leave. And now you think I won't understand anymore Dad? Christ, I have been trying to understand for 15 years!" I think he got my message. He just sat there and I calmed down. "So, just tell me something that's real okay? Not any of this Tolkien-written stuff. Tell me something real."  
  
"I loved you." He said, starting to weep a little. "I don't think any of you kids understood how much I loved you. I wanted to just always be there, but I couldn't. I couldn't take your mother."  
  
"Not many people can." I replied, also trying to lighten the mood. He continued.  
  
"When I read to you it was almost like we were in Middle Earth together." He said. "Like we were just as we said we were going to be."  
  
I looked up at him and he glanced at me. "And I'm not looking for forgiveness or a lack of hatred from you because I know I deserve it. And I'm not looking to be your father, I'm not even looking for you to like me. I just wanted you to know that I really did love you. Even if I buggered off." I sat at my desk, feeling my eyes burn again. He stood up. "I won't bother you again if you don't want it." I finally got up. I reached my arms around him and didn't strangle him surprisingly. Instead, I hugged him, and I hugged him like I used to.  
  
I released him a second later and let him look at me for a second, before I thought of it. "Oh." I said, and I grabbed a rough copy. I showed it to him. "It should make some people believe it. My father looked at it, a small smile moving over his face. He took it by the top and ripped it downward. I grinned again.  
  
"It was good." He said. "But I think you can think of something much better."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"So that's it then?" Tobias asked me. "You and your dad are okay and there's nothing more to say?" We were walking through the crowds of people at the fair that happened to come into London that night. I nodded, leaning my head into his shoulder. He put his arm around me.  
  
"I think there's always something more to say." I replied. "There's always something someone else forgot." He put his head on mine for a second.  
  
"I didn't forget anything." He said. I grinned. "At least I hope I didn't You never do know with me."  
  
"No I don't." I replied, still smiling. We stopped a second and he just looked at me. I hoped he would kiss me again. I think actually it was the nicest thing ever when he kissed me. Made me feel kind of weird. Like my stomach was gonna burst. He actually leaned in and when were so close, when suddenly there was a shout.  
  
"STEP RIGHT UP! GET YOUR TICKETS NOW! For the ALL NEW, MIDDLE EARTH TOURS! With me, your host, Edith! Tickets are only 20 dollars for any place you want to go. Only true believers of Tolkien allowed!" He and I groaned. Edith was standing on a wooden platform in a crazy top hat and striped socks. She, luckily hadn't noticed myself and Tobias. We walked by and he put his arm around me again.  
  
"Well, you know, a second date would be more memorable in Mordor wouldn't you say." I grinned and I looked back for a second, just savouring the memory of Edith wearing a top hat. I turned around again.  
  
"I think I've had enough Middle Earth in my life to last me a lifetime." I replied, grinning, and Tobias kissed me once more.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Well, there we have it, the end of the Tolkien Conspiracy. By the way, just to remind everybody, the quote her father took is on page 382 in my copy of The Return of the King. The rights to Middle Earth all belong to Mister Tolkien and although I would like to have made the millions off them that he did, I cannot be that person (weeps). I hope everyone enjoyed the story as much as I did, and although I would love to have carried on, sometimes it's better to just leave it as is. Well, review and tell me what you think I should do next!  
  
Also, the character Edith is based on my best friend Eden, who reviews and loves the books. She really is short in real life and has the boyant hair. Thanks for letting me use you Edith/Eden.  
  
As for Tobias, he was just a figment of my imagination, based on all those guys you see in movies.  
  
Tobias's Dog, although never shown, was a french poodle named Fifi, who developed a severe case of Kidney stones and nearly died. Okay, I was kidding about that. It was really a Dachshound (or however you spell it) named Gimli who did not develope kidney stones but did run away when Tobias went into Middle Earth. He was found a week later with the french poodle named Fifi and 17 poodle and dachshound (or however you spell it) puppies.  
  
Cougar ended up living a long life in his home. Only twice did he ever tackle into Edith causing her to fall down. When he lived to be a hearty 26, he was put down after he broke three of his legs and was replaced with another Great Dane, this time named Stitch (Edith had recently seen Lilo and Stitch)  
  
Edith ended up making thousands off Middle Earth Tours. She appeared in Delaney's second article, Chimpanzees with Revolvers, about the weirdest entrepreneurs. Despite all that, she actually met several of Middle Earth's finest and even tried to seduce Legolas, (who apparantly does resemble Orlando Bloom). She actually did end up meeting Johnny Depp when he came to Middle Earth Tours (he too is a big fan).  
  
Tobias ended up coming into Business with Edith, and never had to work small jobs again. He and Delaney dated two years before he popped the big question, "Will you come into Middle Earth with me?" And then he asked her, in Rivendell, to Marry him. He ended up writing a book and making a good profit off that, mixed with Middle Earth Tours, which was later renamed Tolkien Tours because it was twice as catchy.  
  
Delaney's father apologized to his whole family and reconciled with his wife (more then I can say for Delaney). They lived out a quiet life on a farm, Tolkien Free, and ended up retiring in happiness. The authorities never found out that he was never dead, so he was basically Telesolisitor free for the rest of his days. He ended up walking Delaney down the Aisle in Rivendell, where she and Tobias got married.  
  
Delaney Marks ended up becoming one of the top reporters of London, and actually moved onto television when she was 27. She married Tobias a year ago and they are currently expecting a child, who will not be named by the father. She read the books just after the wedding and, although never was as obssessed with them as she had been, didn't mind that being the conversational topic 90% of the time in her home.  
  
No reports of Tolkien's Portals ever made it into the media. Edith and Tobias were very careful about what they released to the press, and even though their business soon became International, Delaney was the only reporter to ever have been privvy to the information about The Tolkien Conspiracy. 


End file.
